Energy costs are one of the most important expenses households have to deal with, and a lot struggle to keep up. The issue is that many of them could be taking steps to significantly reduce their energy consumption; they simply don’t know about them. Some of these steps would only require you to make simple adjustments that won’t affect your quality of living. Let’s take a look at a few simple things you could do today to run a more energy-efficient home.
Use Automation
You should try to use automation everywhere you can in your home. Not only will it make it much more convenient, but it could allow you to save tons of money on energy. Things like smart thermostats and smart lights are a must if you want to cut your energy costs. You could use a smart home solution to run both your lighting and heating from one convenient interface. You could control when and where you want your lights to go on or off, or when you want to heat a certain room. This will reduce the amount of time your system has to run simply to keep the house warm and allow you to heat it only when you’re getting home.
Buy Electric Strips
Did you know that things like your coffee machine, microwave, and various other appliances use up energy when they’re plugged in but not running? These appliances could add hundreds of dollars to your energy bill every year when you could simply unplug them. If that’s too much of a hassle, or you have many appliances, you could invest in electric strips that will allow you to cut off the power easily.
Change Your Window Treatments
If you’re spending a lot of money on air conditioning, you shouldn’t rely only on your system to keep the house cool. There are many things that you can do to prevent the house from overheating. One of them would be to consider using light-reflecting window treatments. According to the Department of Energy, highly reflective blinds could reduce heat gains by a whopping 45% when completely closed, so that could make a major difference on your bill at the end of the year.
Place Your AC System in the Right Place
Speaking of heat and air conditioning, you also have to be very careful with where you place your AC unit. The goal here is to make sure that it works as little as possible. Air conditioning units have to work harder when exposed to heat, so you should place it in a spot where it will get the least sunlight possible. This is why many suggest that you place it in a shady area on the north or east side of the house. You could also consider adding a shading tree right above it to reduce stress on the unit.
Consider Switching to a Combi Boiler
If you have a small household, we would also suggest that you switch to a combi boiler. Instead of using a tank that constantly needs to be heated to maintain the water at a constant temperature, combi boilers use heating elements to heat water on demand. If you rarely have to use hot water for multiple applications at once, these could be a great way to save lots of money.
There are tons of things any homeowner can do to reduce their energy consumption. Not only will you be able to keep your costs to a minimum, but you’ll be doing something good for the planet at the same time.