Household Energy Saving Tips

With energy prices in an uncertain limbo right now and the economy being in a slump everyone’s trying to save money anyway they can. Reducing your energy costs can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to lower your monthly bill payments. In the process of making your home more energy efficient you might also address a few other issues that you’ve been meaning to take care of.

When keeping your home at a comfortable temperature you’re either running the air conditioner or the furnace. These can often be the most taxing on your bills and are the first appliances you should look at. Replacing or upgrading these to fuel and energy efficient models can save you several hundred dollars depending on how old your current models are. You may also want to upgrade your water heater to make it more efficient as well.

After taking care of the heating and cooling system what should you do next? You could upgrade to solar power for your home but that might be a bit too expensive right now. Instead you should take a look at your windows and doors. Old drafty window and door frames can cost you a lot of money especially in the winter. There’s no reason that you should heat or cool the outside world so you need to plug those gaps. Sometimes it may be necessary to replace the frames altogether but it is an important step.

Once this is done you won’t get as cold in the winter, or as warm in the summer. The next thing you should consider looking at is your pipes, sinks, and faucets. If you pay a monthly water bill then you should make sure that nothing in your system is leaking in order to avoid paying for water you’re not using. Even a small drip or trickle can lead to about 50 dollars a year in wasted water.

That’s 50 dollars you could put towards gas, food, rent, or other projects. After you’ve taken care of the windows and pipes the last major things to look at are your washer, dryer, refrigerator, and freezer if it’s a separate unit. These appliances can consume massive amounts of power and water if they are outdated by more than ten years. The older your appliances are the more energy they waste.

When all of these are taken care of you can call it quits or you can take it one step further. Though you won’t be saving much by this next step you can still save a few more dollars on your monthly bills. You can upgrade all of your older style TV’s to LCD models if you haven’t done so already. These use less power and will save a few dollars over a year.

If your family has multiple TV’s then the affect will be slightly larger. If you’re really desperate you can upgrade your computer to one of the 80 plus certified power supplies. This will make your computer very energy efficient and save you a few more dollars over the long run.

Saving on energy is important and there are many ways to do so. Remember to check all of your leaks, drafts, and upgrade your major appliances. After doing this you can upgrade all of your lesser appliances as well. Finally if you’re really desperate remember to turn off and unplug everything in a room before you leave.

About Author:

Charlie Blevins owns www.Greatest-Money-Saving-Tips.com and there he writes about being frugal, living on a budget and money saving ideas. Get more great saving money tips by visiting his Web site.