Developing good energy-saving habits can help you save a good deal of money over the course of the year. The three largest energy consumers in your home are your heating and cooling systems, and your water heater. It's easy to save money by changing the way you use this equipment, along with lowering your consumption in other areas around the home.
HVAC equipment
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports that half the energy most Americans use goes toward heating and cooling their homes. Use these tips to cut the cost of conditioning your home without sacrificing comfort:
- Keep the air filter for the blower clean. When it gets dirty, the airflow slows, driving up your conditioning costs and reducing the life of your system or increasing mechanical breakdowns.
- Have your HVAC equipment maintained annually. The cleaning and adjustments HVAC contractors make increases system efficiency, lowering your bills.
- Use a programmable thermostat to control the temperature settings, especially if you're away during the day. You can program the thermostat to heat or cool your home shortly before you get back, which will save a lot of energy.
Water heating
- Turn the water heater down to 120 degrees and only wash full loads in the dishwasher.
- Taking shorter showers is one of the best energy-saving habits to instill in yourself and family members.
- Use hot water infrequently for the laundry. Most detergents clean just as well in cold or warm water.
Around the house
- Make it a habit to unplug chargers for your portable devices. Most of them continue to draw power even when the battery is full and the device removed. The DOE estimates that Americans consume 100 billion kilowatts of power they don't need by not unplugging these chargers.
- Make sure your storm windows are installed properly and air isn't leaking around the window frames. Caulk if this is happening.
- Have your computer monitor set to sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity.
To learn more about energy-saving habits, please contact us at Hartman Brothers Heating & Air Conditioning. We've provided quality HVAC services for the Fort Wayne area since 1963.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in New Haven, Indiana and surrounding Fort Wayne area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about good energy-saving habits and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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