I have been listening a lot to the news and reading a lot about energy savings. Last fall we went through our house and prepared it for winter and also took stock of our energy saving efforts and despite the increase in gas and electric prices our bill actually went down over the winter before. Here is what we did:
- where possible replaced all light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs - they take a little longer to come on when you flip the switch but they are over all more energy efficient.
- Changed our thermostat to a set back thermostat with many settings - most homeowners leave the house to go to work and don't turn back their thermostat to a cooler setting during the day. It is amazing how much you save by this simple act but I don't know about you but in the morning I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off and the last thing I think about is setting the thermostat back, so for a small investment we purchased a thermostat to do it for me. Why should we heat a house when there's no one home? Likewise, why should we cool a house when there's no one home?
- Insulate your hot water pipes in the basement where accessible. Your hot water sits in the pipes for a while before it gets to the tap and insulating the pipes will keep it hot rather than letting that heat work it's way out into the atmosphere.
- Our basement windows are old and we live in an older house. We took plastic and reinforced the seal on our basement windows so that air doesn't come in or out.
- I am a quilter and have lots of fabric and craft supples so I made a draft dodger for under the front door. I was surprised how much cool air came in under our front door. You can buy these at Walmart and other like kind stores so you don't need to be crafty to create one.
These are just a few tips from me to make your home or your clients homes more energy efficient this fall and winter season.
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