With home energy costs seemingly increasing all the time and the fact that this will only get worse as fossil fuel prices continue to increase due to a dwindling supply, taking steps to reduce those energy costs is important if you don’t want those costs to get out of control.
Here are some inexpensive energy savings tips. These tips, while not free, are low cost and should, therefore, be affordable to most people. And bear in mind that the money you spend on these changes is an investment that could reap huge dividends for you in the form of potentially substantial savings on future energy bills.
1. Prevent heat from leaking out and cold air from coming in by caulking your doors and windows and any other places that may allow draughts such as pipes, etc. This can save you as much as 10{935df326bf8786fd6731f48a04668d2c59cbc638da1dd11cbd372b56fcc68833} in heating costs. Use weatherstripping around doors, windows, etc. Ducts should also be sealed, preferably using mastic sealants rather than cloth duct tape.
2. You can save about 3-5{935df326bf8786fd6731f48a04668d2c59cbc638da1dd11cbd372b56fcc68833} in heating costs by installing energy-saving showerheads. Also, installing faucet aerators will improve your energy efficiency by reducing the amount of water that flows through the faucet while maintaining water pressure.
3. Avoid wasting energy from needless heating or cooling by replacing your current thermostat with an Energy Star thermostat.
4. If you have an old water heater, wrap a water heater blanket around it. This will retain the heat in your tank much longer, and reduce the cost of re-heating.
5. You can lose up to 212 gallons of water a month from a dripping faucet, not to mention the energy cost. Stop the drips and repair any faulty plumbing.
6. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about a quarter of the energy that standard incandescent light bulbs use and last somewhere around 10 times longer.
While taking these steps may cost some money, they are by no means expensive and not taking them could end up costing you a lot more in the long run than what you’d invest to take them.
And the more you delay, the more it will cost you. It could also cost everyone in your neighbourhood. For example, if you live in an area where water may be in short supply, say Arizona, not fixing dripping faucets and losing all that water could make the difference between water being relatively plentiful and a drought being declared.
If possible, don’t delay – fix today!
