12 Ways to Put Your Home on an Energy Diet

12 Ways to Put Your Home on an Energy Diet Some easy tips to put your home on an energy diet without changing your lifestyle. 01 Keep Things Unplugged Even when not in use, devices can leach power when they're plugged in. Keep battery chargers, on-demand coffee makers, toasters, and more unplugged until you're ready to use them. 02 Upgrade to a Smart Thermostat With a smart programmable thermostat, you can experience significant energy savings. These devices make automatic adjustments based on your schedule, ensuring that cooling and heating power doesn't go to 03 waste. Switch to Efficient Light Bulbs Energy-efficient bulbs, such as LED and CLF bulbs, use significantly less electricity than old-school incandescent ones. Plus, they last much longer. Swapping old bulbs with efficient models can dramatically reduce energy costs. 04 Install Water-Saving Fixtures WaterSense fixtures reduce the load on your water heater, leading to less energy usage. Certified showerheads can use two gallons of water or less per minute without sacrificing 05 pressure. Modify or Replace Your Toilet Toilets are big water and energy wasters. You can reduce the impact of your flushes by upgrading to a WaterSense toilet, which uses 1.28 gallons or less per flush. Alternatively, you can modify your existing fixture with a water-saving kit. 06 Lower Your Water Heater Settings Dialing the thermostat back on your water heater isn't going to make a huge difference in terms of comfort. But, a 20-degree difference can help you save up to 10 percent on energy savings. 07 Install a Dishwasher Contrary to popular belief, dishwashers often use less energy than hand washing. That's because they use a controlled amount of hot water. By using your dishwasher strategically, you can avoid wasting energy by putting less strain on your water heater. 08 Wash with Cold Water Rather than wasting hot water and energy on a load of laundry, wash your clothes on the cold cycle. Most washers these days are more than capable of making your garments spotless with cold water. 09 Replace Your HVAC Filters As your air filter collects debris, it's forcing your heating and cooling systems to work harder. By replacing or cleaning them frequently, your systems can work much more efficiently. Thus, they use less energy. 10 Use Fans Ceiling fans won't cool down your room like an AC unit. But, they will circulate air and create a comfortable breeze. Even during the winter, reversing the direction of the fan will pull hot air away from the floor, making the room much more comfortable with less energy. 11 Search for Plumbing Leaks Leaks can result in thousands of gallons of wasted water every year, which results in unnecessary work for your water heater and well pump. Check your fixtures for leaks regularly and address those issues as soon as possible. 12 Get Rid of Air Leaks Air leaks make your HVAC system work overtime to keep temperatures stable in your home. Sealing up air leaks keeps the conditioned air contained all year round, reducing your overall heating and cooling costs. prepaid lights www.prepaidlights.net