Ways to Save Energy in Your Avon Lake Home

Today, with concerns about greenhouse gasses, the high costs associated with building new generation facilities and a desire to reduce our dependence upon foreign oil, energy conservation has gained new momentum. Some utility experts have termed conservation the fifth generation source. Conservation could help forestall the need to build new power plants.

In dollar terms, every dollar spent on conservation equals five dollars spent on generation. 

Refrigerators
Did you know that refrigerators consume about one sixth of all the electricity used in a typical home? If your refrigerator is older, replace it with an energy efficient model to save on your electric bill. According to Richard Karney, ENERGY STAR Program Manager, a refrigerator manufactured before 1993 uses twice as much energy as a new ENERGY STAR qualified model.

If you replace your refrigerator, avoid plugging the old one in as a backup. If you only need an extra refrigerator occasionally, unplug the second one when you aren’t using it or consider using a compact mini-fridge instead of a full-size model. No matter what your refrigerator’s age, follow these tips to trim its energy use:
• Position it away from a heat source such as the oven or direct sunlight from a window (or use a curtain to block direct sunlight if you can’t reposition).
• Allow air to circulate around the condenser coils. Leave a space between the wall or cabinets and the refrigerator or freezer. Keep the coils clean.
• Make sure the door seals are airtight.
• Set the refrigerator temperature between 35 and 38 °F and the freezer at 0 °F.
• Minimize the amount of time the door is open.

Lighting

The most basic and most effective way to save money on lighting is the simplest. Turn lights off when you are not using them. Arrange work areas near windows so that you can use natural light whenever possible during the day. Use timers on lights that need to be on for specific times every day and make sure timers operate correctly.

You can increase your energy savings by replacing older incandescent bulbs with modern compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). CFLs cost more than incandescent bulbs. Remember though, that replacing a 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 20-watt CFL that is in use for 5 hours a day will pay for itself in just over two years in terms of saved power costs. That light will then continue to work for upwards of 8 years, each year saving you more money. What a great return on your investment!

If every American home replaced the five highest-use light fixtures in their home with energy saving fixtures, or the incandescent bulbs in those fixtures with CFLs, each family would save more than $60 every year in energy costs, and collectively we would keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of our air, a reduction equal to the emissions of 8 million cars.

Outdoor area lights provide welcome light for farms, homes and businesses But, outdoor lighting can be an unnecessary expense. Take stock of your outdoor lighting. Is it really needed? Recent studies also show that lights added for outdoor safety can sometimes create greater safety hazards than they solve. If a building or other object creates a dark spot within the travel area, the dramatic change in lighting creates a greater safety hazard than if no lights were installed at all.

If you have area lights for increased security, consider the recommendation of crime prevention experts at Rutgers University (http://crimeprevention.rutgers.edu). They say that dark areas are better protected than well lit areas if there is no one around to witness and report crimes and if lighting helps criminals to see what they are doing. In these situations, installing motion detectors on area lights provides a more effective security solution.

Motion detectors and switches can also reduce outdoor energy costs for other applications as well. Lights with on/off switches and lights with motion detectors attached to a fluorescent light source cost pennies a year to operate. Removing one yard light, or putting a light on a switch can save SLVREC members between $60 and a few hundred dollars per year.

Water Heaters
Your water heater accounts for a significant portion of your home’s energy bill. Anything you can do to help conserve hot water will reduce your energy use.

When you turn on a hot-water faucet during cold weather, it may take several seconds for the water to become hot, especially if it’s a long distance between the faucet and the water heater. Shorten this time by insulating your hot water pipes where they are accessible. Insulation is particularly effective if the pipes run through unheated portions of your home like a crawl space or attic.

Check your water heater too. If it is warm to the touch, it may benefit from additional outside insulation. Water heater blankets are available at most hardware stores.

If you have a dripping faucet, especially if it ’s a hot water drip, it’s worth the time it takes to fix it. If you use well water, your well pump probably runs on electricity. Even a slow drip wastes as much as 15 gallons of water per day. A ⅛-inch stream of water can send 400 gallons per day down the drain!

Replacing a standard showerhead with a low-flow showerhead can save about 7 gallons per person per day. If you keep your shower to seven minutes using a low-flow showerhead, you’ll use about 14 gallons of water or less. Baths usually require about 20 gallons of water, the same as a ten-minute shower.

Washing dishes by hand several times a day costs more than operating an energy-efficient automatic dishwasher. Wash only full loads. Choose the shortest washing cycle you can to get the job done.

Do you pre-rinse dishes before you wash them? Many newer dishwashers do a great job of cleaning without a pre-rinse. If your dishwasher is an older model that needs a little assistance, fill the sink with a small amount of water for the prewash instead of letting the tap run over each item. Use cold water instead of hot for this chore to save more energy.

The biggest cost of operating a dishwasher comes from the energy required to heat the water before it even reaches the machine. If you have a newer model dishwasher with a booster heater, use it and turn down the thermostat on your household water heater to 120 °F.

Like dishwashers, much of the cost—up to 90 percent—of operating washing machines is associated with the energy needed to heat the water. Unlike dishwashers, washing machines do not require a minimum temperature for optimum cleaning. Either cold or warm water can be used for washing most laundry loads; cold water is always sufficient for rinsing. Make sure you follow the cold-water washing instructions for your particular laundry detergent. Washing only full loads is another good rule of thumb for reducing hot-water consumption in clothes washers.

Phantom Loads
Phantom loads, standby power, off-mode power, leaking electricity. What’s the difference? None! All of these terms describe the power electrical gadgets consume even when they are off.

Seemingly inactive electrical items can use a substantial amount of power. The average home in the U.S. has between 10 and 25 phantom loads, and this number is growing quickly. Phantom loads can consume between 5 and 10 percent of a home’s total electric use.

Phantom loads are created by devices that:
• Receive power through a stand-alone power supply or charger.
• Have a remote control.
• Have a soft-touch keypad.
• Charge the battery of a portable device.
• Have a clock, internal timer, or display that remains on when the item is off.
• Are warm near the switch when switched off.
• Do not have an “off” switch.

Standby power is probably responsible for 1 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. This may seem like a small amount until you consider that this is power consumed by appliances that are switched off or are not performing their principal functions.

It can be easy to eliminate some of the standby power use in your home. Simply unplug chargers and power supplies when you are not using them. Cell phones chargers are a common phantom load culprit. According to Future Forests, only 5 percent of the power drawn by cell phone chargers is actually used to charge phones. The other 95 percent is wasted when chargers are plugged into the wall, but not into a phone. Alternatively, plug items into a power strip and use the switch on the strip to turn off all the attached devices at once. This works well for stereo systems and home theater equipment.

When it comes time to replace units you can’t unplug—like telephones, answering machines and garage door openers—consider standby power consumption in your purchase decision. There can be a huge difference. For example, the standby power consumption of a compact audio system can vary from 1.3 watts to 28.6 watts. Certain appliances consume nearly as much power while switched off as switched on. Most television cable boxes show little change in power between the two modes and many models of compact audio equipment and VCRs have similar “on” and “off” power requirements.

Know What You Use

Calculate the electric use of any household appliance using this formula: 
Watts/1000 x hours = KwH x rate = Cost

Amount of Energy Used by Common Devices