Make your Home Green

Ways To Cut Energy Consumption Before You Build Solar Panels At Home

Before you even get started building solar panels at home or any other alternative power generator, be it windmills, or another type of generator, you can begin to reduce your electrical bill this very day. We are an energy and energy crazy nation, using our natural resources at an amazing rate, giving little no heed to what we may be doing to our children’s future.

Start today to do your part to conserve energy and save on your power bill by using these tips

1. Change all of your incandescent tungsten filament light bulbs in favor of fluorescent light bulbs or even better LED light bulbs. The LED light bulbs are rated for 100,000 hrs or approximately 12 years and are about 12 times more efficient than regular light bulbs. But no matter what bulb you use, if you do not turn them off when not in use, you burning energy.

2. Get power strip to put your TV and DVD on. Put another on you PC and all the attachments. When not in use turn them off at the power strip. These models will still continue to consume power even when not turned on. This is ti give instant starts with no warm up need. The thing is, your TV will use as much power in one day in standby mode as you use to watch an entire movie. These standby devices can consume up to 15% of your power bill. That is pretty big piece change in some households.

3. Air dry your clothes. Shut that drier off in the summer time and let the sun have at your clothes. The clothes drier is power sucking device for the 45 minutes you dry a load of clothes.

4. Do not do a load of laundry or dishes until the washer is full. Better yet, do the dished by hand and save boat of cash on Hot Water and the dry cycle of the dishwasher.

5. Cut back on the A/C. Turn the thermostat a few degrees warmer than usual. It is not healthy to run the A/C any cooler than about ten degrees cooler than outside temps anyway. Or turn the thermostat down a notch or three in the winter. Put on a sweater if you get cool rather than heat the whole house. These devices are hungry energy monsters so use them sparingly for maximum energy conservation.

6. Take five minute showers instead of the usual half hour showers. Shower rather than bathe. Shower with a friend. Save water and the juice it takes to heat all of that water.

These are things you can do today to start saving and costs nothing except for the replacement of the light bulbs. There are few things you can do that will cost a bit more though that are huge energy savers.

1. Caulk all doors and windows.

2. Put weather strips on all doors and windows and keep them in good working condition.

3. Replace old single pane windows for new Energy Efficient type windows

4. Add insulation to your attic. Blow the attic to a minimum of 18 inches

5. Install reflective roofing if possible or the next you re-roof put on light colored singles to cut down on the absorption of the sun’s energy

6. Install awnings over the windows to block summer sun invasion

These just a few things you can do to start conserving energy and saving on your power bill. With a wee bit of effort on your part, you could cut back on the energy you use up to a whopping 50% and hardly even notice a change in your life style.

About the Author

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Conserve Energy Project Group 3 I-Austerity 2011 by Amanda Guanlao

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