5 Simple Ways To Improve Your Home’s Energy Efficiency
Whether your goal is to save money or reduce your carbon footprint, there are a number of quick and easy ways you can improve your home’s energy efficiency. In an average home, heating and cooling accounts for nearly half of it’s energy consumption. For this reason, this is a great area to focus on when you are trying to improve your energy efficiency and decrease costs.
The 5 Simple Ways
1. Seal Your Home
Adding insulation to your home can save you 10% on your heating and cooling costs. Take a walk around your home and seal cracks around windows and doors with weather stripping. Replacing single pane windows can help reduce your energy bill by up to 50%!
2. Install a programmable thermostat
Adjust your home temperature according to your schedule so that you are not wasting energy when you are not home. Dress for the weather and turn your thermostat down a degree or two and save even more. You will barely notice the temp change, I promise.
3. Clean and replace filters regularly
Your heating and cooling system has to work harder when your filters are dirty. Many factors can influence how often your filters should be changed but typically you should be changing them every 90 days if not sooner! We put a task in our calendar to remind us.
4. Wash clothes in cold water
Heating water accounts for 14% of your home’s energy use. Most of the energy your washing machine uses comes from heating the water, not from actually washing your clothes. Switch to a cold-water detergent and save money on your gas or electric bill! Plus as an added benefit washing in cold water helps your clothes keep the awesome color longer.
Turn lights off and switch to LED lighting
We can probably all remember being constantly told as kids to turn off the lights-and it was for good reason! Lighting accounts for 9% of a home’s energy consumption. Turn off lights when you leave the room and set them on timers for when you are not home. LED lighting can help you reduce your energy use by 75% compared to incandescent lighting. LED lights are also more than 95% recyclable and can last up to 17 years making them a much greener choice!
On a side note: Never let your spouse replace the lights without your knowledge. They might come home with LED lights connected to their phone and start turning them off or changing colours while you are trying to shower!
These are all simple and affordable ways that you can start improving your energy efficiency while saving money. You can improve your energy efficiency and save even more by switching to more renewable sources of energy and taking advantage of local energy incentives.
To find out more about incentives in your area there is usually a government agency set up to help. In PEI that agency is called Efficiency PEI. They offer a wide range of incentives for energy saving that you should check out here.
With all the simple ways you can start saving today and lowering your energy consumption why not also check out how going Solar can help you produce energy for a more sustainable future. Find out more about net metering and all the ways it can save you money today and in the future!