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Energy Saving Tips - In Your Home
Every room in the house offers opportunities to conserve energy and save money.
Living Rooms and Dens
- Replace regular light bulbs with ENERGY STAR® Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs).
- Turn off lights when you leave a room.
- Use dimmer switches, timers, and three-way lamps.
- Plug home electronics into power strips with surge protection. Turn the strip off when the equipment is not in use.
- Turn off your computer when not in use and activate sleep mode when away from it.
- Add weather stripping or caulk around windows, doors, exhaust fans and other places where wires or pipes pass through walls.
- Close the damper in your fireplace when it is not in use.
- Install a programmable thermostat, allowing you to adjust the temperature for when you are home, away or sleeping.
- Look for natural furnishings that have been or can be recycled.
Kitchen and Laundry
- Look for the ENERGY STAR® label on home appliances and products. These products meet strict efficiency guidelines set by the EPA.
- Use a toaster oven instead of a large conventional oven, when possible.
- Boil water in a pot with a lid.
- Use pots and pans that cover the stove’s heating element.
- Keep your refrigerator set between 33-39 degrees.
- Keep your freezer full.
- Don’t place refrigerators right next to ovens.
- Run the dishwasher when it is full and use the energy-saving setting for drying or let dishes air dry.
- Use warm or cold water for washing clothes and cold water for rinsing.
- Wash and dry full loads of clothes.
- Use an automatic clothes-drying cycle instead of a timed cycle.
- Keep the dryer’s lint filter clean for greater efficiency.
- Recycle.
Bedrooms
- Put a TV on a sleep timer if you like to fall asleep while it’s on.
- Make sure furniture and drapes aren’t blocking the air supply vents.
- Unplug your electric space heater when not in use.
Bathrooms
- Lower water heater to the optimal temperature of 120-125 degrees F.
- Wrap your water heater with a water heater blanket.
- Insulate water pipes coming from the water heater.
- Install low-flow shower heads and faucets to reduce energy and hot water use.
- Repair leaky faucets.
- Turn off running water when shaving or brushing your teeth.
Attics and Utility Rooms
- Add insulation to the attic.
- Insulate around recessed lights, attic doors and other places where outdoor air sneaks in.