Save Energy This Summer

Below is a simple list of energy saving tips that cost little or nothing to start saving energy & money this summer.

1) Water Heaters - Adjust the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees. Water heating accounts for up to 25% of your energy costs in the home.

2) Air Conditioning Unit - Maintain your a/c unit with professional care. If you live in an area where you just survived the winter and summer is coming, have your a/c unit checked out before those hot days kick in. For all areas, routine maintenance is necessary, not only for energy efficiency, but for the life of your a/c unit.

3) Seal Doors And Windows - Hot air can leak in through cracks around doors and windows. Check all doors and windows in your home or business for leaks. Apply caulking and weatherstripping where necessary.

4) Ceiling Fans and Proper Ventilation - By using a ceiling fan with your a/c unit the temperature of a room can increase about 4 degrees. Be sure to turn off the fan when you leave the room. Ventilation - Make sure all your ventilation systems (bathroom and kitchen) vent to the outside of the house and not to the attic. Use these ventilation systems while cooking and while taking a shower or bath to draw the heat outside otherwise the heat goes into the house.

5) Thermostat - Adjust your thermostat to a higher setting without causing discomfort to yourself. Make adjustments for when you're away from home. Programmable thermostats can help a great deal to make your home more energy efficient.

6) Appliances - Take advantage of the warm days of summer and grill outside. This reduces any amount of heat the stove or oven produces. When you cook inside, use the stove instead of the oven. Using a microwave oven helps reduce heat. With dishwashers, wash only full loads.

For other great energy saving tips keep checking back or subscribe to this blog. If you have any energy saving ideas/tips/news please share them with us.

Tim
Greenwise Power Solutions
greenwisepower.com

Stop Paying for Energy You Aren't Using

Back in October, we heard a lot about "energy vampires." A very convenient holiday metaphor, to be sure, but you're probably not in the Halloween spirit in January. Nonetheless, you may be in the mood to reduce your energy costs, and standby power is something worth considering all year round.

Standby power is the minimum power used when a product is plugged in. That doesn't necessarily mean the product is "on" or "attached to your cell phone"—yup, just plugged in. Obviously, a lot of products need to stay plugged in even when you're not using them; you wouldn't, for instance, unplug your digital clock when you leave the room and plug it back in and reset it each time you re-enter.

But how many items do you leave plugged in that don't need to be? Almost all of them are using electricity—and you're paying for it. How about those chargers for your cell phone, mobile device, or mp3 player? What about your DVD player, stereo, or video game system? And think about your office--computer, monitor, printer, scanner, and computer speakers... the list goes on. And if your house is anything like mine, you may have two or more of each of these items!

Any one of these may not draw much power on its own (see the chart from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to see just how much standby power many of them draw), but a typical American home has roughly 40 of these products that are constantly plugged in and constantly drawing power. That can add up to 10% of your total electricity use.

You may not be able to cut all of your standby power (nor would you want to), but there are things you can do to reduce your use:

• Unplug all small chargers when they aren't in use
• Use a power strip to turn off groups of products all at once (for example, all of your computer equipment)
• Unplug all products you rarely use.

Check out the Tips to Cut Standby Power from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to learn more about identifying products that use standby power and reducing your stand-by energy use.

Allison Casey is a senior communicator at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which assists EERE in providing technical content for many of its Web sites.

Source: Energy Savers Blog

Energy Saving Tips