We want to help you manage your energy costs. Instead of reaching for the thermostat when it is bitterly cold outside, take a conservative approach to staying warm and keeping costs down. The following winter energy savings tips will help you save money and energy.
Open drapes, blinds and curtains during the day to allow the sunlight to enter and warm your home. Close them at night to prevent the chill you may feel from cold windows.
Weatherize your home – caulk and weather strip doors and windows that may leak air.
If using a space heater, make sure it meets the latest safety standards and carries the Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) label. Keep space heaters at least three feet from anything that can catch fire, such as drapes, bed linens and furniture.
Lighting is an extremely important part of our lives. The proper light can help us perform various tasks throughout the day and night. It can also affect our comfort and mood and help us feel safe and secure in our homes.
Did you know in the average U.S. home, lighting can use more energy than your laundry equipment, refrigerator, and dishwasher combined?
The average household has approximately 70 light bulbs. An ENERGY STAR® certified light bulb uses about 70 to 90 percent less energy and lasts 10-25 times longer. If every household replaced just one light bulb with one that has earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light 2.6 million homes for a whole year and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of 648,000 vehicles.
You can save up to $5 per month by replacing your five most-used light bulbs to ENERGY STAR certified LEDs. The more bulbs you change, the more you'll save.
Turn off lights when they are not in use. Consider using timers to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.
Use task lighting. Focus the light where you need it so you are not brightly lighting an entire room.
Use dimmers, motion sensors or occupancy sensors to automatically turn on or off lighting as needed.
Turn off your outdoor lights or use a timer so they are not left on during the day.
The outdoor porch light is one of your home's most used fixtures, so replace any incandescent bulbs with ENERGY STAR certified bulbs rated for outdoor use. They come in a variety of styles and finishes, and many include features such as a motion sensor or automatic daylight shut-off.
Three-way lamps make it easier to keep lighting levels low when brighter light is not necessary.
During the winter, open the curtains on your south-facing windows on sunny days to allow the sun to naturally heat your home.
Close the curtains and drapes at night to retain the heat.
Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are small light sources that are illuminated by the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material.
LEDs are exceptionally energy efficient when producing individual colors, many using up to 90% less energy than an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light.
Properly maintaining your air conditioning systems, central A/C or heat pump can improve energy efficiency. Periodic inspection and maintenance from a local service provider helps ensure your system is working at its optimum level to provide a comfortable temperature inside your home.
Save up to $50 a year by having your HVAC system professionally inspected.
Regularly clean or replace furnace filters according to the package instructions. (The day you receive your energy bill can serve as a good reminder that it's time to clean or replace the filter on your furnace.)
Clean registers, baseboard heaters and radiators as needed. Be sure to move furniture, carpeting or drapes so they are not blocking the registers, heaters or radiators.
Your HVAC contractor should be able to provide fact sheets for various models so you can compare energy usage. While the national Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating is 80% for furnaces, ENERGY STAR® models must equal or exceed 90% AFUE.
Insulate your water heater to prevent heat loss. You may also want to insulate the hot water pipes in your home.
Look for the ENERGY STAR® label when replacing your HVAC equipment.
Caulk and weather strip your doors and windows to help keep the warm or cool air you pay to heat/cool inside your home so you will save energy and money.
Caulking should be soft and without cracks for optimum performance.
Use trees, shrubs or awnings at your windows to shade from the outside to avoid the heat of the sun during the summer. In the winter, remove the awnings and trim the trees and shrubs to take advantage of the sun's rays to warm your home.
Use draft stoppers at doors and windows.
Improve your home's energy performance by having new energy-efficient windows professionally installed. You may realize personal benefits from improved aesthetics and comfort even though it may take years to pay off the financial investment in overall energy savings.
In the summer, close curtains on the south and west facing windows during the hottest part of the day. Consider applying sun-control or reflective film to prevent the intense summer heat from entering your home.
Reflect heat away from your house by installing white window shades, drapes or blinds.
Install tight-fitting window shades on drafty windows once you have weatherized them. For a low-cost measure, use heavy-duty, clear plastic sheets on the window frames during the winter. Tightly sealed plastic will reduce air infiltration.
Get an energy analysis. Find out where the common sources of air leaks are within your home.
Make sure you have adequate insulation in your home.
Close fireplace dampers when the fireplace is not in use.
In the summer, use the ceiling fan in the counterclockwise direction. While standing directly under the ceiling fan you should feel a cool breeze. The airflow produced creates a wind-chill effect, making you "feel" cooler. In the winter, reverse the motor and operate the ceiling fan at low speed in the clockwise direction. This produces a gentle updraft, which forces warm air near the ceiling down into the occupied space.
Lower the thermostat(s) on your hot water heater to 120° F (typically the lower half of dial-type thermostats).
Buy a new energy-efficient water heater. It may cost a bit more initially, but the energy savings will continue throughout the lifetime of the water heater. Look for ENERGY STAR models.
Wash only full loads of clothes or dishes.
Install faucet aerators or low-flow faucets and shower heads.
If heating your family's swimming pool, purchase a swimming pool cover to prevent evaporation of the heated water.
Remember that insulation and sealing air leaks can help improve your home's energy performance because they help you keep the cool air you have paid to cool inside your home.
Use a fan even when your air conditioner is running so you can spread the cooled air more effectively throughout your home without having to adjust the thermostat.
Turn off fans in rooms not in use. Fans are effective at cooling you – not the room.
Fans help circulate the air in your home. Moving air makes you feel cooler, so you can set your thermostat at a higher temperature during the summer and still feel comfortable.
Whole-house fans can help cool your home by pulling cool air through the house and exhausting warm air out through the attic. Whole-house fans are effective primarily when they are operated at night because that is typically when the outside air is cooler than the inside.
Do not place lamps or electronic equipment, such as a TV set near your home's thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, which can cause the air conditioner to run longer than it needs to.
Adjust your thermostat up two degrees in the summer. Using a programmable thermostat can help you save up to 10% energy usage.