What the Energy Company Does Not Want You To Know
I’ve got my monthly energy bill down big time and I did it without solar panels. My energy bill is 25% less than the previous month. Here is how I did it.
Insulate Windows – Making sure that your windows insulate correctly is probably the single best thing you can do to lower your monthly energy bill. If you have single pane windows your money is literally going out the window. Single pane windows are really bad insulators. Changing to double pane windows will save you a ton of money but they are expensive. You can put up heat sealing drapes in the summer and storm windows in the winter. This will save you a ton of money. You may want to take a room by room approach. The first room you should do this in is the family room.
Ventilation In The Attic – Your attic stores an incredible amount of heat. If your air vents get clogged with dust, too much heat will build up in your attic and make your air conditioner run much too long. You need to clean the vents in your attic and make sure they are allowing hot air to escape through them. If you have an attic that doesn’t have vents, you need to have some put in. Go to your local hardware store to find attic ventilation kits.
Change Those Air Filters – Dirty air filters will cost you a lot of money because it will make your air conditioner work too hard to keep your home cool. You need to change your air filters once a month if you want to save money off your monthly energy bill.
Change Your Stove Fan Filter – The fan that is located above your stove will get backed up with grease quickly. Fortunately, there is a filter in this fan that catches all that grease. The problem is that most people do not know that this fan even has a filter so they never change it. When this filter is clogged with grease, your fan has to work twice as hard costing you even more money.
Turn Off Lights To Save Energy – You should lower the wattage of light bulbs you are using and turn off lights whenever possible. Every light bulb has a wattage rating. Ten 60-watt bulbs in recessed lighting in your ceiling turned on for 4 hours a day will cost you about $11 per month. Never leave lights on at night. If you have just one 60-watt outside light that burns all night it is costing you about $10 per month. Forget dimmer lights, they save you very little. Fluorescent lights use much less power but they cost you more. However they last anywhere from 5 to 10 times longer and so that additional cost up front pays for itself over time. Fluorescent lights also have a reduced carbon footprint.
Learn How To Calculate Power Usage By Your Appliances – You should know how much your appliances are costing you. The formula is wattage / 1000 x hrs of usage per day x how much money you are charged per kWh / 30 days in a month = total energy cost per month of that appliance. For example, a refrigerator uses 540 watts per hour. Let us say you run your refrigerator for 17.9 hours a day. So a month’s worth of use costs you 540 / 1000 x 17.9 x 0.15 x 30 = $43.50 a month.
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