Energy Saving Tips

• Make sure you have adequate levels of insulation in your exterior and basement walls, ceilings, attic, floors, and crawls spaces.
• Make sure there are no holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets that could allow air into or out of your home.
• Make sure the fireplace dampers are closed.
• Make sure your appliances and heating and cooling systems are properly maintained.
• Reduce electricity by opening blinds instead of using the lights.
• Replace incandescent bulbs and fixtures with compact or standard fluorescent lamps.
• Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
• Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
• Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they are not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
• Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season.
• Place a heat-resistant radiator reflector between exterior walls and the radiators.
• Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely; in just 1 hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.
• During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill from the cold windows.
• During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.
• Close an unoccupied room that is isolated from the rest of the house, and turn down the thermostat or heating for that particular room or zone. However, if you heat your house with a heat pump, do not close the vents—closing the vents could harm the heat pump.
• Select energy-efficient equipment when you buy new heating and cooling equipment. Look for high Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) ratings and the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). The national minimums are 78% AFUE and 10 SEER.
• Look for the ENERGY STAR and EnergyGuide labels. ENERGY STAR is a program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed to help consumers identify energy-efficient appliances and products.
• Check your ducts for air leaks; look for separations and holes.
• If you use duct tape to repair and seal your ducts, look for tape with the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) logo to avoid tape that degrades, cracks, and loses its bond with age.
• Remember that insulating ducts in the basement will make the basement colder. Consider insulating both the ducts and the basement walls.
• If your basement has been converted to a living area, install both supply and return registers in the basement rooms.
• Be sure a well-sealed vapor barrier exists on the outside of the insulation on cooling ducts to prevent moisture buildup.
• Don not set back the heat pump’s thermostat manually if it causes the electric resistance heating to come on. This type of heating, which is often used as a backup to the heat pump, is more expensive.
• Clean or change filters once a month or as needed, and maintain the system according to manufacturer’s instructions.
• If you never use your fireplace, plug and seal the chimney flue.
• Keep your fireplace damper closed unless a fire is going; this will stop your warm air from escaping through the chimney.
• Install exterior or interior storm windows; storm windows can reduce your heat loss through the windows by 25% to 50%.
• Storm windows should have weather stripping at all moveable joints; be made of strong, durable materials; and have interlocking or overlapping joints. Low-e storm windows save even more energy.
• Repair and weatherize your current storm windows, if necessary.
• Install tight-fitting, insulating window shades on windows that feel drafty after weatherizing.
• In cold weather, close your curtains and shades at night; open them during the day.
• During the cold seasons, keep windows on the south side of your house clean to maximize solar gain.
• Install white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the house during the warm season.
• Indoor Lighting Tips
• Turn off the lights in any room you’re not using, or consider installing timers, photo cells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.
• Use task lighting; instead of brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it.
• Consider three-way lamps; they make it easier to keep lighting levels low when brighter light is not necessary.
• Use 4-foot fluorescent fixtures with reflective backing and electronic ballasts for your workroom, garage, and laundry areas.
• Consider using 4-watt mini-fluorescent or electro-luminescent night lights. Both are more energy efficient and luminescent lights are cool to the touch.
• Use Compact Fluorescent (CFLs) Bulbs in all the portable table and floor lamps in your home.
• Use outdoor lights with a photocell unit or a timer so they will turn off during the day.
• When washing the dishes, scrape – don’t rinse – off large food pieces and bones. Soaking or pre-washing is generally only recommended in cases of burned-on or dried-on food.
• Be sure your dishwasher is full, but not overloaded. Loading your dishwasher properly will prevent the need to re-wash dishes.
• When using your dishwasher, let your dishes air dry; if you don’t have an automatic air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse and prop the door open a little so the dishes will dry faster.
• When shopping for a new dishwasher, look for the ENERGY STAR® label. ENERGY STAR® dishwashers us less water and energy and must exceed minimum federal standards by at least 13%.
• When shopping for a new refrigerator, look for a model with automatic moisture control. These models will prevent moisture accumulation on the cabinet exterior without the use of an “anti-sweat” heater, which consumes 5% to 10% more energy.
• Make sure your refrigerator or freezer is maintaining the proper temperature. Recommended temperatures are 37˚ to 40˚ for the refrigerator and 5˚ for the freezer.
• Wash your clothes in cold water using cold-water detergents whenever possible.
• Wash and dry full loads of clothes; if washing a small load, be sure to indicate the appropriate water-level setting.