How You Can Go Green With Your Energy
Green energy can have many rewards. It will help you cut your bills because your family will not rely as much on the electrical grid, and it will help you preserve the environment, as well. Eco-friendly green energy helps protect the environment. Keep reading for a few easy ideas!
Consider installing solar powered lamps for outdoor lighting. These lamps are very cheap, as they require no external power source, just the sun. This will end up saving you a lot of energy. It will also save you money by not having to wire the outdoor lights to your home.
Lower the cost of heating your indoor water, pools and hot tubs by switching to solar water heating systems. This is also a very efficient way to heat water and keep it at the proper temperature. While many of these upgrades have high up-front costs, they may qualify for tax credits or other rebates.
Maintain your furnace to save energy. Replace filters annually and clean them once a month. It is also a good idea to install filters on warm-air registers. This helps keep debris (or Hot Wheels cars) from getting into heating ducts and reducing efficiency.
Instead of using the dryer, dry your laundry outdoors when weather permits. The sun gives your clothes a great smell. They’ll smell so much better than if you shoved them into a dryer! Additionally, you will save both money and energy.
If you are aiming to save energy and money, try running the dishwasher only when the load is completely full. Running it with half loads is wasteful. You might be surprised by the number of items that you can fit in your dishwasher. Think carefully about where you place each dish for optimal storage in the washer.
Solar Energy
Take advantage of solar energy to heat your home’s water without breaking the bank. You can purchase a hot-water system that is run by solar energy. You have a choice between both an indirect or direct circulation system. Indirect is best if you have cold winters and worry about pipes freezing.
Homes with storm doors and windows have better airflow than homes without these upgrades. Storm doors and windows decrease cold air from drafts. Energy efficiency improves by 45% when storm doors and windows are implemented, which are big energy savers.
Save energy by buying products that conserve energy. Certain green products, like double glazed windows, eco-friendly doors and windows really help reduce the amount of energy needed to run your home efficiently. Utilizing these kinds of products permits you to reduce the costs of cooling and heating your home.
Use a laptop computer instead of desktop, which uses much more energy. This can significantly lower the amount of electricity you use, especially if the computer is on the Internet a lot or uses word processing software. Since laptops are portable, you can use them anywhere.
Pay attention to local and federal rebates for renewable energy updates on your home. There are times when your utility company can offer discounts and rebates for your upgrade costs. In other instances, credit or tax deductions are offered by federal or state governments. Rebates and credits will help to offset the cost of implementing green energy technology you want to add to your home.
If you don’t know about investing a lot into green energy in your home, hire pros, such as heating experts and plumbers, to give you an assessment of your current systems. These professionals can point out inefficient appliances and systems, and they can also help you determine how much it might cost to upgrade them.
Check and manage your watt usage. If you do not know the formula to figure out the energy each appliance uses, there are tools like a Kill-A-Watt that can give you the information instantly. You can plug in various devices into these devices and see how much energy that item uses for periods of time including a hour, month, and even a year. This will make you realize what a given appliance costs you over the long run.
Write yourself reminders to stay on top of new energy efficiency goals, and check every utility bill against the previous year’s to see if you are making gains. The more aware you are of using energy, the easier it is to reduce your energy use. If you form good habits of cutting your electric or water usage, turning off appliances and lights when not in use becomes automatic.
Billion Kilowatt
Try and invest in LED lights when you decide to decorate your home for any holiday season. Over two billion kilowatt power hours can be saved! We could save at least a couple billion kilowatt hours if each person would make this change. That’s a large amount of electricity–it would power 200,000 homes over the course of the year. At a minimum, you will lower your energy bill.
Start carpooling to take care of many of your daily tasks. Don’t think of it as just an option for commuting to work. If you have children, organize a carpooling system with your neighbors and trade off driving days among all the participating parents. If you have family or friends close to you, you could also plan your grocery trips together and share the driving responsibilities.
A lot of people want to learn what it takes to go green, yet there aren’t too many that truly take some time to do so. As you have seen here, there are many ways you can start to make your home greener without spending a large amount of time or money doing it!