Lowering your energy bills can be as easy as adopting energy-saving habits. It doesn’t have to mean investing a significant amount of money in an HVAC upgrade. Although this strategy nets bigger monthly energy savings, changing your lifestyle habits can net energy savings that will add up over the years. Find out how you can adopt patterns of living that lead to energy savings, and whether or not you’ve been needlessly wasting energy:
- Lighting – Investing in high-efficiency lightbulbs helps you save, but so does turning lights off when you don’t need them, and using as few lights as possible when occupying a room or space.
- Heating – Take note of how home occupants use the living areas in the home. Is there a room or rooms that are rarely used over the winter season? Closing the registers in these spaces will limit how much heat is delivered to them, and wasted. Be careful not to close too many areas, however, since your central heating system does require a minimum amount of circulation to work properly.
- Thermostat settings – Lowering the thermostat setting automatically leads to energy savings, and it’s one of the simplest approaches to lowering your energy bills. Setting a substantially lower temperature at night when the family is asleep is ideal, as you won’t notice the difference in temperature when you’re under the covers. Also try lowering the temperature setting when the home is occupied to find a new, energy-saving temperature. In general, the lower you can set the thermostat, the more you’ll save. This same rule applies with raising the temperature in the summer.
- Windows – Keep more heat inside by upgrading the efficiency of the windows around your home. Install storm windows if you can’t afford to upgrade to high-efficiency ones, or use window-sealing kits. A layer of plastic will prevent heat loss, too.
- Water usage – Water-heating costs are the third highest in the average household after heating and cooling. Learn to take shorter showers, and wash full loads when running the dishwasher and clothes washer. Check the water heater’s setting, too, and lower it to 120 degrees to save even more.
For expert advice when lowering your energy bills, contact Climate Control Company today. We’re the area’s leading HVAC experts in heating and cooling repairs, installations and maintenance plans. We’ve served western Colorado homeowners since 1956.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Aspen, Vail and the surrounding Western slope communities in Colorado about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about lowering your energy bill and other HVAC topics, please visit our website.
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