You may be surprised at the range of options available to make your home more energy efficient. The intent of this article is to provide you started on your journey toward using green energy and reaping its many benefits.
You might be able to get a government grant to finance your green energy installation. Check out your local government so that you can see what type of programs are available in your area. You may qualify for a free installation or a tax deduction.
If you’re designing any kind of outdoor lighting, consider using solar lamps instead of conventional power. These lamps are cheap and can save you on power bills because they’re powered by the sun. This will end up saving you a ton of energy. It means you do not to have string up those outdoor lights.
Solar panels can be an excellent investment for the typical homeowner. Before you do this though, you need to think about a few things first. Think about how much sun your house typically gets. If you home is shaded, the amount of energy collected from solar panels will be greatly reduced.
Shading windows from sunlight can help you use less energy. You can do this by putting in curtains or blinds. You can save money and energy at the summer.
Start paying attention to your energy consumption. Unplug the charger for your iPod and XBox when they are not in use. Cell phone and mp3 chargers draw energy even if they aren’t charging anything.
Wear natural fabrics instead of running your air conditioner. Wear lighter colors tend to make you feel warm and cause you to rely on the air conditioner.
Clean filters or replace them to ensure your furnace is appropriating at prime efficiency. Filters can also be installed in every warm-air register. Register filters will help prevent debris increasing efficiency.
Are you lucky enough to own a farm owner? If you own a farm, or if you are aware of someone that does, you may be able to rent some of the property to a local energy company that will install a type of wind turbine.
Cover your windows when no one is at home. This keeps the interior of your home cooler or warmer, depending on the season, and reduces your energy bill. Usually, windows that face south receive the most sunlight. Try adding window coverings that block heat, such as shades or darker, lined curtains.
Many heating systems can be switched over to run on biodiesel without needing extra parts or parts.
When you install a solar energy system, place the batteries close to the cells. Doing this will help prevent power loss within the cable. Additionally, the cable cannot shade the cells, which can cause reduction in generation.
Consider solar water heaters to make your home. If you live in a place with normally warm temperatures, purchase a system that puts the water in a solar heater prior to coming to your home. However, consider that you may still need a traditional heater if you will be using a great deal of hot water, or if the sun does not come out.
Keep your refrigerator well maintained. Since refrigerators are one of the high-consumption appliances, it’s crucial that you keep it running efficiently. Be sure that you’re regularly cleaning the dust that builds up near the heating coils. You should also be sure that the door has a clean and tight seal.
Take time to maintain the fridge. Since refrigerators tend to eat up a great amount of power, it’s crucial that you keep it running efficiently. Make sure you clean the dust that surrounds heating coils periodically. Make sure the door seals are clean and tight.
Help to control the air flow in your own home by installing a storm door and storm windows too. Storm doors and windows dramatically reduce the amount of drafts and cold air that get into your home. Homes which have stormed windows and doors increase their energy efficiency by as much as 45% which also ends up costing you a lot less on your utility bills.
Tankless Heaters
Replace a water heater that is tank-style, with a model that is green and has no tank. Even though these green versions of water heaters still use electricity or gas, they only need it to warm the water you’re using instead of heating it at all times. You can get a tankless heater that will supply the whole house or one that supplies a single hot-water faucet.
Use a tankless water heater instead of a tank. While tankless heaters still require gas or electricity to heat your water, they will not heat more water than you need, which is what a water tank heater does. Tankless heaters can supply the whole house or even just a single water faucet with water that is hot.
There are active and passive options for solar energy systems. Passive solar power doesn’t require the costly power-storage cells that active power does. To use active power it requires mechanical systems, solar panels and cells. Passive solar power is simply making use of the sun to keep thermal energy in your walls so you can heat your home.
Learn the differences between passive and active solar power.While passive is simply using the sun in storing thermal energy inside your walls in order to heat your house.
Buy energy saving materials to help save energy in your home. Some green items, like environmentally freindly doors, will reduce your energy usage by a lot. If you use these products extensively, you will see quite a bit of savings on your energy bills.
You should heat source for your home with biofuel. These fuels are comprised of vegetable or animal fats, oils and wood. This fuel would be about 20-99 percent biodiesel. Talk to a pro before using biofuel in the home.
Desktop computers are very power hungry. Try using a laptop as an alternative. This could possibly reduce your electrical use by 75 percent, especially if the Internet is used frequently or there is heavy use of word processing software. Plus you can take your laptop anywhere.
Less Energy
Find out about federal and local rebates for updates about renewable energy for your home. In some situations, your local utility company may provide rebates to offset some of the cost of such upgrades. Other companies may offer tax deductions from your local or federal government. You can lower the cost of putting green energy into your home by using these credits or rebates.
Replace your old major appliances with new Energy Star rating. Energy Star ratings mean that your new appliances are guaranteed to use less energy than those made previously. For refrigerators and freezers, the rating guarantees 20 percent less energy used, for dishwashers 40% less energy used, and for washing machines at least 50% less energy used!
Try to communicate more via email. So, try your best to be as paperless as you possibly can. This doesn’t only help you communicate and save electricity, it will lower your bills as well. Most importantly, it helps to protect the environment.
Try using a toilet that saves water. Some estimates report that up to half of all the water used in a home is flushed right down the toilet. An older model toilet uses a lot more water than a water-saving one, whereas a water-saving model only uses 1.6 gallons, saving about 70 percent on your yearly water use.
Closely monitor how many watts you are using. Use gadgets like the Watt Minder and the Kill-A-Watt so that you can discover what uses the most energy. Plug the appliance into the device, and it can tell you the amount of energy it uses within an hour, month, or even a year. You can use this to identify your most expensive energy-hogging appliances.
The advice you just read is easy to put into action, so stop making excuses and start adding green technology to your home right now. Going green will help you sleep better at night, so change your life today and see how much better your feel tomorrow.
When the holiday season rolls around again, make the switch to LED lighting rather than sticking with traditional lighting solutions. According to a U.S. study. We could save at least a couple billion kilowatt hours if each person would make this change. That’s enough to power a quarter of a million houses for a year! You could reduce the amount of your own utility bill as well.
