Week 8 - Reduce Your Energy & Water Usage: Annual Savings $875
Energy and water conservation is not only good for your wallet, it helps our environment too. There are hundreds of tips out there (some of which we were already doing – yay for us!) and even services that will come to your home and conduct a survey and help you become more energy efficient. I searched the sites and came up with my own list, which I considered easy to incorporate and actually did. The calculated savings was done by comparing last year’s bills to this year, less a few deductions. I was amazed at the money we saved!
The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By incorporating even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!
1) Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator(s) temperature to 38 degrees and your freezer to 4 degrees. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
2) Wash your clothes in warm or cold water, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds with a gas heater.
3) Leave the dish cleaning job to a professional: your dishwasher. As long as you wait until it’s full to run it, it uses less than a third of the water that you’d use doing the job by hand. And for extra savings, go ahead and scrape your dishes but don’t rinse them before loading (if you can run the washer soon and not worry about bugs or smell). A good modern dishwasher should be able to do the job without your help. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 % of your dishwasher's total electricity use.
We did wash a lot of dishes by hand prior to this experience, so this was a lifestyle change for us. It took a while to get used to, but we soon embraced it and saved time, money and our hands!
4) Minimize use of kitchen sink garbage disposal. In-sink 'garburators' require lots of water to operate properly, and also add considerably to the volume of solids in a septic tank which can lead to maintenance problems. Start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing food waste.
I purchased a compost pale for $15 (deducted from savings). Small investments pay off! Our household took a while to get use to this change. We did not like the thought of rotting food in our house, so we moved it to the garage, where it quickly starting attracting bugs. We finally started a larger compost pile in the yard, and emptied our small pale into it regularly – which alleviated our problems.
5) Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions.
6) Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket. I paid $20 for this jacket (deducted from savings). It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.
7) Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.
We made a conscious effort to use less energy with our air conditioner, as it was in constant use in our Florida home. We turned it off, when possible and subsidized with ceiling fans. During the day when we were at work, we adjusted the thermostat a few degrees, or turned it off entirely.
Another tip: Most central air conditioner thermostats are equipped with two fan settings – "on" and "auto." When the setting is "on," the fan runs continuously. The "auto" setting allows the fan to run only during cooling cycles (when the air conditioner compressor is operating). When the air conditioner is in use 24 hours a day, the cooling compressor only operates about 50 percent of the time, or 12 hours, so turn it to "auto"!
8) Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5% of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year. Clean or replace air filters regularly. This can vary depending on the filter you are using. It's important to follow the instruction found on the packaging. If you no longer have it, here are some basic guidelines:
a. Deep Pleated = Once or twice a year
b. Ordinary Flat or Pleated = 2-3 months
c. Traditional fiberglass/polyester = monthly
9) Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year.
10) Install water aerators. These devices, which increase the oxygen saturation of water cost as little as $1 each and save up to 5 galloons per faucet per day.
11) Add a brick to the toilet tank. This will reduce the amount of water used to flush the toilet each time (1 gallon per flush).
12) Check washing machine for “quick wash”. My machine had a cycle called “quick wash” that cut down the cycle time by 20 minutes. With 5-6 loads of laundry per week, this added up in saving water and energy very quickly.
13) If you’re in the market for a new appliance, make sure to select the most energy-efficient models. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Remember to do your research when purchasing appliances and don’t be afraid to negotiate.
At the end of the year we stuck to some saving techniques more than others, which resulted in an average monthly savings of $73 compared to the year before. The annual savings for both water and electric added up to $875. This was a nice start and I plan to add a few more energy saving items for next year!
Resources:
Progressenergy.com
www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/20things.htm
www.squidoo.com/10waystoconserveenergy
eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm
All data found on this website is Copyrighted by MOMTHATSAVES. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Energy and water conservation is not only good for your wallet, it helps our environment too. There are hundreds of tips out there (some of which we were already doing – yay for us!) and even services that will come to your home and conduct a survey and help you become more energy efficient. I searched the sites and came up with my own list, which I considered easy to incorporate and actually did. The calculated savings was done by comparing last year’s bills to this year, less a few deductions. I was amazed at the money we saved!
The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By incorporating even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!
1) Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator(s) temperature to 38 degrees and your freezer to 4 degrees. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
2) Wash your clothes in warm or cold water, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds with a gas heater.
3) Leave the dish cleaning job to a professional: your dishwasher. As long as you wait until it’s full to run it, it uses less than a third of the water that you’d use doing the job by hand. And for extra savings, go ahead and scrape your dishes but don’t rinse them before loading (if you can run the washer soon and not worry about bugs or smell). A good modern dishwasher should be able to do the job without your help. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 % of your dishwasher's total electricity use.
We did wash a lot of dishes by hand prior to this experience, so this was a lifestyle change for us. It took a while to get used to, but we soon embraced it and saved time, money and our hands!
4) Minimize use of kitchen sink garbage disposal. In-sink 'garburators' require lots of water to operate properly, and also add considerably to the volume of solids in a septic tank which can lead to maintenance problems. Start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing food waste.
I purchased a compost pale for $15 (deducted from savings). Small investments pay off! Our household took a while to get use to this change. We did not like the thought of rotting food in our house, so we moved it to the garage, where it quickly starting attracting bugs. We finally started a larger compost pile in the yard, and emptied our small pale into it regularly – which alleviated our problems.
5) Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions.
6) Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket. I paid $20 for this jacket (deducted from savings). It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.
7) Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.
We made a conscious effort to use less energy with our air conditioner, as it was in constant use in our Florida home. We turned it off, when possible and subsidized with ceiling fans. During the day when we were at work, we adjusted the thermostat a few degrees, or turned it off entirely.
Another tip: Most central air conditioner thermostats are equipped with two fan settings – "on" and "auto." When the setting is "on," the fan runs continuously. The "auto" setting allows the fan to run only during cooling cycles (when the air conditioner compressor is operating). When the air conditioner is in use 24 hours a day, the cooling compressor only operates about 50 percent of the time, or 12 hours, so turn it to "auto"!
8) Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5% of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year. Clean or replace air filters regularly. This can vary depending on the filter you are using. It's important to follow the instruction found on the packaging. If you no longer have it, here are some basic guidelines:
a. Deep Pleated = Once or twice a year
b. Ordinary Flat or Pleated = 2-3 months
c. Traditional fiberglass/polyester = monthly
9) Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year.
10) Install water aerators. These devices, which increase the oxygen saturation of water cost as little as $1 each and save up to 5 galloons per faucet per day.
11) Add a brick to the toilet tank. This will reduce the amount of water used to flush the toilet each time (1 gallon per flush).
12) Check washing machine for “quick wash”. My machine had a cycle called “quick wash” that cut down the cycle time by 20 minutes. With 5-6 loads of laundry per week, this added up in saving water and energy very quickly.
13) If you’re in the market for a new appliance, make sure to select the most energy-efficient models. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Remember to do your research when purchasing appliances and don’t be afraid to negotiate.
At the end of the year we stuck to some saving techniques more than others, which resulted in an average monthly savings of $73 compared to the year before. The annual savings for both water and electric added up to $875. This was a nice start and I plan to add a few more energy saving items for next year!
Resources:
Progressenergy.com
www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/20things.htm
www.squidoo.com/10waystoconserveenergy
eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm
All data found on this website is Copyrighted by MOMTHATSAVES. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.