With all the things you could do around the house to save money energy wise with making changes is it significant? Or just pinching pennies the way some people claim coupon clipping is?
Hey it's a tough economy. Here are a few things about appliances and systems in being more efficient with energy.
- A top mount freezer if you freeze a lot of food is more efficient than side or bottom mount ones
- If you replaced your top loading washer with the newer version energy efficient front loading one you typically would save $50 a year on the water bill. Now that one might not be significant enough.
- With those compact fluorescent light bulbs over its life replacing the incandescent bulb you will save per bulb $30. So count up your bulbs changed out and multiply. Some people still don't like the mercury hazard, at least disposal or breakage with CFL's. Your choice. Compact fluorescents do use a staggering 50% less electric than incandescents so that lowers heat into the air too. If you turn a CFL on and off too often it will shorten its life
- If you UPGRADED your air conditioning system in a ten year old house, 2,000 sqft two story you could save $250 on electric a year. Now you must consider the investment to do that. If you stay in the house a long time, maybe smart
- If you have a four setting programmable thermostat instead of just manually adjusting the temp you can save up to $180 a year. Not bad
- The percentage of cooled or heated air LOST through duct leaks in the house is a whopping 20%. They have these detection tools that can spot this, so that one can be HUGE to get repaired
- Finally, a real advantage of having a programmable by time of day thermostat by having it start to cool down the air just before you come home is it uses a lot less energy than maintaining a constant temperature all day. Many think air conditioners work harder bringing the temperature down vs. a constant temperature but they don't
Don't believe all the hype on energy savings, some is just nickels and dimes but some is significant. Check your roof and windows too, huge losses of energy without radiant barrier protection in the South and efficent style windows.
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