Improve Energy Efficiency
In Your Home and Save Money

Here is how Energy efficiency is done at your home. This is the backbone of your energy consumption. Implement it well and you will save money and on the contrary you will be throwing away hard earned money.

This is the first and very important step in the overall greening process and it will turn your house over in an energy efficient home.

It is all about making good use of the energy that is available to you, in as well as the technical aspects and its monetary value. Wasting energy is equal to throwing away your money in the trash, and live on a landfill.

It sounds funny, but you pay for thrown away energy and power plants need to generate more pollution to toxic the atmosphere. Beside there are a lot of other things you could have done with those wasted thrown away money.

Staying in your old habits of energy use, you won’t sense the new feeling either. As soon as you make the energy efficiency commitment and start being efficient with energy use, you will see at the end of the month, those substantial leftovers in your wallet.

You will soon be looking for more energy efficiency ways to increase those leftovers. And you will find those ways and even creating your own ones. Give yourself some space and soon you’ll be installing solar panels, wind turbines or other energy conservation products.

Even if you are not going to install a renewable energy system for now, dedicating attention to the energy efficiency in your home, will give you a status in this Green living way of life at your own level and ease.

Find in the list below, any good reason to be part of the new 'green living way of life'.

Monetary benefit all over.
Increase of your Home Comfort.
Connection to the social Green Living community.
Be a contributor to the reduction of the global CO2 emissions.
Be your own Energy Star.

Ok let us start analyzing how people use energy. We use energy mainly for:
1. Lighting
2. Run appliances
3. Heating and Cooling
4. Water

Be always Conscious and Alerted in following the next list concerning energy efficiency implementation.

On your HOME:

Do Not Over-dimension your energy needs.
Look for ways to Shift Energy Usage
Do some Home Improvements
Have a Home Energy Audit done

On your Energy USAGE:

Use Energy Efficient Appliances labeled with the Energy Star
Eliminate Unnecessary Losses of Energy in your home appliances
Be on the lookout for Recycling possibilities

On your own Person:

Change your lifestyle to a Green Living Lifestyle
Monitor your energy bills frequently to get feedback on your energy usage.

The following is an explanation of the above list with examples for a better understanding.

Home:

-Do Not Over-dimension your energy needs

As with everything in life do not use more than needed. Everything else is waste.

Do not over-dimension the light intensity. Example, do not use a 100W light bulb while a 60W one can do the job.

Do not over-dimension your air-conditioning. Installing a 24,000 BTU AC where a 12,000 BTU one will be sufficient. Adjust your thermostat to a proper level or use programmable thermostats.

Do not buy a larger refrigerator than you need.

Do not boil more water than needed for a cup of coffee. The excess water will use heat (energy) and then will be left to cool again without any effective use. Besides It also take more time to heat.

Do not build a 5kW-system, while your “Load” is only 2kW. Your system is over dimensioned. And even if you use a 2kW-system for a 2kW “Load”, you need to investigate how to further reduce your “Load” for the System.

You can apply this rule for everything you use. Let your conscious mind be always on alert.

-Shift Energy Usage

Every situation is different. Every person has a different taste. So you need to plan your situation according to your needs and monetary capability.

Cooking with electricity consumes a lot of energy. For example do your cooking with solar energy cooking methods or with natural gas.

Heat water using Solar water heater.

Dry your laundry on drying racks or on clothes line in the sun or just air dry instead of using dryers.

-Home improvements

Explore the possibility of installing Solar Tubular Skylights in your home or office. A very cost effective and energy efficient way of providing natural light in your home or office.

Install energy efficient windows and doors.

If possible install Radiant water heat combined with a Solar water heater, to heat your home. Your investment will soon turn over into fortune.
For details on Radiant water heat visit www.Radiantheatreviewer.com

Good insulation of your home makes it more energy efficient and reduce your energy cost considerably.

In case you plan in remodeling your home or plan to build a totally new house, keep 'Green' all the way in mind. An energy efficient home design with the implementation of Solar Energy in your plans among other things. The solution you can find on the page Designing and Remodeling a Home at www/energysavers.gov

For more tips on energy savings, visit the U.S. Department of Energy site.

-Home Energy Audit.

Eliminate losses of energy in your house due to construction inadequacies. This is done with a Home Energy Audit.

Your Energy Usage:

-Use Energy Efficient Appliances

The use of Energy Star Labeled appliances is recommended. They have a high energy efficiency rating. When you buy, consult with the store personnel who help you make a better choice.

Consider replacing your fridge for a more energy efficient refrigerator, especially if it is old. Old refrigerators usually have current leaks. Consult the store or a cool technician to make a choice of which one would be a better replacement for the old one referring to the efficiency in energy consumption. Most of them have the energy star label.

Replace incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Given the same amount of light the CFL lamp consume about 70% less energy.

Even more efficient is Led Lighting, which consume about 90% less energy compare to incandescent of same light density. Their price is somewhat higher than Cfl's. Use of motion detectors on outdoor lighting can save you a lot of energy. These lights will then go on only when necessary.

pictures of a Cfl light bulb and a Led light bulb

-Eliminate Standby Energy Losses and boost your energy efficiency
A lot of electrical appliances when turned “off” still draw energy from the outlet. TV’s, satellite boxes, stereo’s, battery chargers, modems, micro ovens, VCR’s, CD and DVD players, toys and all other appliances connected through an external power supply or a step-up or step-down transformer.

The useless drawn of energy is referred to as Standby energy loss, phantom loads or vampire loads.

These vampire loads are “on” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of these loads may be small (about 1 Watt) or considerably (10 Watts or so). The accumulative energy loss for all the appliances can be substantial for example 40 to 60Watt of continuous energy loss.

Let’s make a comparison. Consider an energy loss of 60Watt. And let’s say you use the appliances for 6 hours a day average. The 18 hours remaining in a day, the appliances consume 60 x 18 =1080 Watt-hrs per day and this is in a month 1080 x 30 = 32400 Watt-hours which is 32.4 kWh in a month. The average American Home has an electricity usage of about 900kWh a month. The loss is about 3.6 percent of the total energy usage. The fact is you pay for these losses.

To transfer this loss into dollar value, have a look at your electricity bill and figure out how much the utility company charge you for 1kWh of electricity. Let’s say it is $0.42. You pay for your bill 900 x 0.42 = $378.00 of which 32.4 x 0.42 = $13.61. And this is only for useless energy.

If you want to know more about electricity cost, you can contact the Customer Service of the Utility Power Company in your area.To get some idea of what to expect on a utility bill, visit Saving Electricity at michaelbluejay.com.

-Recycling
Recycling is an important practice to reduce waste and for the production of energy out of waste. Waste to Energy. In a its way a contribution to energy efficiency.

Look for information at your local recycling centers for the type of materials to collect, how to separate them and about instructions for delivery or pickup services.

The most common collections are glass, paper, cans, plastic, old ink cartridges and batteries. Some places collect used cooking oil, aluminum or even used clothes and shoes that can still be used by more unfortunate people in the community.

Check out places that will reclaim your waste items and then add them to your recycling bins.

Recycle the water you used to wash your clothes and collect it to water your garden.

Change your own Lifestyle to Green Living:

Be always on alert to energy efficiency savings. On the long run you’ll will get accustomed and it will become an automated mindset.

When washing your hands, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, don't let the water run useless.

Use a bucket of water when washing your car instead of a water hose.

Be creative in your environment, inventing your own energy savings methods.

For additional information on how you should save water visit the "Home Energy Savings Guide".

-Monitoring your energy bills

After you have implemented some energy efficiency in your home, you want to stay informed over the kind of savings it provides.

If your bill goes up, it is for you to decide if that is conform your energy usage or whether this is an energy leak in which case you need to act upon.

More about Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at homeenergyfaire.com

Return Home from this page Energy Efficiency