With the seasonal changes throughout the year, balancing the cost of your power and energy is not easy. The good news is there are a couple simple tips you can do at home to keep your costs as low as possible. A few of the tips that keep your energy costs down include turning off unused energy, unplugging unused items, and keeping you HVAC at a reasonable temperature.
Turning off Unused Energy
I get pretty good window light in my apartment. As soon as daylight hits I open my curtains and use the natural light to light up my home during the day. I tend to use this natural light for several hours until the sun goes down. This saves lots of energy. The light does not travel throughout my entire place, so in the rooms where I need to use the lamp or ceiling lights, I am very careful to turn those lights back off when I leave the room. It also helps not to leave the TV or radio on when not in use. If you are using a computer, you may want to set it to an energy saving mode if you don’t want to power it down. Balancing energy use would be a lot easier if we had plans that offered Free Nights and Weekends Electricity.
Unplugging Unused Items
Items that are plugged in can potentially draw energy even if they are not in use. Try for a month to unplug phone charges or printers or appliances that are not getting used and see what the difference in on your energy bill. Believe it or not, these items are still getting electricity surging through them even though they are not at full power. When your cell phone is finished charging, detach it from the charger and also unplug the charger from the wall.
Keeping Your HVAC at Reasonable Temperatures
Has your home or any other home you’ve visited been ridiculously cold or warm? You can feel when you are using more air conditioner or heat than is necessary. If it is your home that is guilty, it’s time to make an adjustment. Getting your home to a comfortable temperature also helps the HVAC system because it doesn’t have to work so hard to reach a level beyond the norm. Comfortable temperatures are usually just a few degrees different from what your home would naturally feel like. If you are going to need tons of hot or cold air, you can help your system work easier by closing off vents to areas where you’re not in. Heating or cooling rooms that are not occupied is wasting air. You can also close curtains to block the sun if you are needing to reach a colder temperature.
Keeping energy costs down can be challenging at first, but you can always start with the simple tips to see if they make a difference. If you have done all that you can to get your costs down, but nothing seems to work, you may need to get a specialist to come out to your home and evaluate your true usage. Get your usage down on your own by turning off things you’re not using, unplugging items you’re not using, and by keeping your HVAC system at a reasonable temperature.