Many people want to have a greener life but are unsure how to start. The number of solutions available and the specifications of each one, can quickly become overwhelming for a consumer who only wants to protect the environment and save money. This article will show you how to incorporate green energy into your life.
It is fairly simple to have solar panels installed to tap into solar energy to use in your home. There are some things that should be further looked in to before doing this. Think about the amount of sunlight that hits your house on an average day. Shade is valuable in some respects, but when you are considering solar energy it can be a complicating factor.
Be a smarter energy consumer by unplugging your electronic device chargers when they are not in use. They may not be currently in use, but items such as cell phone chargers, laptops and mp3 players draw energy when left plugged in.
Clean filters or replace them to ensure your furnace is appropriating at prime efficiency. Install filters for your warm-air registers, too. This will help ensure debris doesn’t enter heating ducts, thereby reducing your efficiency.
When a home has stormed windows and doors, air flows better. This is because they decrease the amount of cold air circulating through your home. Your home’s energy efficiency will increase by as much as 45% if you install storm windows and doors!
Instead of using a desktop computer, which sucks up more electricity, buy a laptop. Laptops use up to 75% less electricity than desktops, especially during non-demanding tasks like surfing the web or word processing. The other benefit to using laptop over a desktop is that it is portable, so it can be taken anywhere!
Look for rebates at the local and federal levels for updating your home to renewable energy sources. In many cases, the electric company will pay for part of the upgrades. The federal government offers tax write-offs and other credits in return for your changes. Receiving these kinds of credits and rebates can make installing the updates much less expensive for you.
Opt for emails over paper whenever possible; get on no-mail lists for catalogs and junk mail. Use paper as little as you can. This helps to lower the energy costs of businesses as they communicate, and you can save energy as well. It also helps save the planet, of course.
Whenever possible, keep the heat in your home turned down. If you feel a small chill, instead of turning up the heat, put on a sweatshirt or sweatpants. Having your heat turned up too high will consume a great deal of unnecessary energy.
Appliance Uses
Keep track of how many watts you’re using. 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. If you attach the device to the appliances in your home, it will let you know how much energy that appliance uses for different lengths of time. This lets you know how much it costs to operate an appliance.
Keep written track to remind yourself of your green energy goals, and look for progress in your energy consumption by comparing current bills to the previous year’s. By being aware of the energy you use, you can start to reduce that consumption. Taking the time to use less resources will help you get into a habit of preventing energy waste through unattended appliances.
One way to use less energy in the kitchen is to use a microwave oven. When cooking on, or within, the stove, a lot of energy is used. Any time you could perform a task in the microwave without altering the results, such as boiling water, do so. You can conserve a significant amount of energy this way.
An on-demand water heater is a very effective energy saver. Traditional water heaters run constantly, wasting energy because they heat water when it isn’t needed. An on-demand water heater instantly heats water as it is needed resulting in tremendous savings.
Although this may seem like common sense, many people still keep the lights, appliances and electronics on when they are not using them. If everyone did this on a regular basis, an enormous amount of energy could be saved. Consider what you are doing before it is done, and turn those appliances and lights off when you are finished using them.
An easy to get started in energy efficiency is to ask your electric company for help. Most utility companies have an area on their website that will show you your exact energy usage hourly, along with various ways to lower the amount of energy used and lessen your costs. Be sure to also check out any programs they have to help you purchase energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs.
The introduction to this article emphasized the fact that as the world reaches peak oil, green energy is going to become more and more important to our survival as a species. With the right information, it will be much easier to put greener energy sources to use in your life. Remember this advice, and go green today!
