From Guest Blogger Dixie Somers: Green Tactics Five Tips for Conserving Energy in Your Home
Home energy is costly for consumers. The average American household spends about $2,100 per year on energy bills. Creating a green home truly revolves around the idea of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Reducing energy consumption is an important way to make your home more green. The following five tips are just a few of many possible steps you can take to cut down on your energy usage.
Buy compact fluorescent bulbs
Replacing regular bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs can reduce energy usage in your home by up to 75 percent.
Replace regular torchiere lamps with Energy Star torchiere lamps
Energy Star torchiere lamps are not only more energy efficient than regular halogen torchiere lamps, they’re also safer. Halogen torchiere lamps are cheap to buy, but they’re expensive to use and dangerous. Halogen lamps have been known to cause house fires, as reported by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Regularly change and clean air conditioner and furnace filters
Regularly cleaning and changing air conditioner and furnace filters can help you reduce energy usage. Keep dust out of filters by washing, changing, or even vacuuming the filter. In fact, you can vacuum a filter about once per month and spray it with a dusting spray to help restore the filter’s ability to trap dust. Filters can be reused several times after cleaning. Also, you should have your air conditioner and furnace inspected about every two years to ensure that they are in proper working condition.
Change your washing and drying habits
Washing and drying clothes and dishes eats up a lot of energy. First and foremost, make sure you are using Energy Star certified appliances. You should also consider lowering your water heater setting or switching to cool water settings while washing clothes in the washing machine.
When washing dishes in the dishwasher, let them drip dry instead of running the drying cycle. Make sure you are running a full load each time you put dishes into the dishwasher or are washing clothes in the washing machine.
Hang wet clothes up to dry outside during warm weather. Wet clothes can be hung up inside during warm weather on a simple wooden drying rack. During the winter, this can actually act as a natural humidifier in a room.
Unplug devices when they’re not in use
Simply turning off your TV or PC after use will not completely stop energy consumption. Unplug these devices when they are not in use to stop them from drawing power for instant-on functionality. If you choose to leave these devices plugged in, make sure they are hooked up to surge protectors to keep your devices protected during power outages and from power surges.
Conclusion
Going green should not have to cost you your hard-earned greens. There are numerous ways in which you can reduce energy consumption in your home. These tips might seem like small steps, but the more you do, the more you will save on your monthly energy bill.
I take issue with your advice about light bulbs. At this point LEDS are the way to go. In just the last year or two light quality has improved while costs have gone down. A 65 watt flood light bulb for my recesses lights is $4.50 for a 2000 hour incandescent, CFL is $6 with Bulb life of 8,000 hours. I can replace the whole bulb and reflector with a new air sealed LED for less than $10 with a 20,000 hour life.
I have some new smart outlet strips that my energy auditor gave me that have two always on plugs and the rest detect when the appliance has gone into stand by mode and shuts off the power, then the power comes on as soon as you try to use it.
and the LED’S do not have mercury in them like the CFL’s