From Guest Blogger Lizzie Weakly: Keeping the Lights On–How to Optimize your Home's Electrical Efficiency

Far too many people waste power by leaving the lights on when they don’t need to. Optimizing their energy efficiency can greatly reduce power bills and lessen their impact on the environment. Here are a few ways you can improve the efficiency of your energy use.

1. Find out where it’s being wasted.
The first step to optimizing your energy use is to discover the places where you may be wasting energy. Do you leave lights on when not in the room? Is the thermostat set too high? Do a walk-through of the home and look for possible problem areas. Make note of all of these, and then come up with solutions for how to address the issue.
2. Turn off the lights.
When you’re not in a room or out of the home, turn off the lights. While you may think little of leaving a hallway light on, it can amount to a substantial amount of power usage over the course of a year. By turning off lights except when they’re needed (and within reason — don’t put yourself at risk for the sake of saving money), you can reduce your energy bills each month. Those savings add up.
3. Install a ‘cool roof.’
While this can be an expensive renovation, it can result in massive savings over time. A cool roof is a type of roof that reflects sunlight and prevents the interior of the home from absorbing as much heat as it normally would. This helps to keep homes cooler during the summer and reduces the amount of energy used by an HVAC system.
4. Ensure there are no electrical leaks.
Shorts in certain wires can cause your electrical use to skyrocket. By having a professional inspection once per year, you can ensure you are making the best use of your electricity and not wasting it due to a malfunction. Companies like Independent electrical contractors of Greater Cincinnati can help you find any problem areas in your wiring that you may not be aware of.
5. Use solar power.
To make a huge improvement in your family’s energy use, install a few solar panels. They will pay for themselves in a few years’ time in the amount of savings you’ll net as a result of their installation. Solar panels are the way of the future, and can allow you to actually supply power to the grid.
Follow these five steps to make your home more energy efficient than it’s ever been.