Posts Tagged ‘save money’

Here is how you save energy easily

Today’s technology has provided us with numerous electronic devices, and we want to be able to buy and use them all whenever we want. However, with the increasing fuel cost and electric rate, there are things that need to be done.And why not grab the latest if you can afford it?

You may simply grab the latest plasma television or the most advanced heating system today but the thing is, you have to pay the price not only on these items but the electricity that they will consume. And chances are, if you have all the high tech stuffs at home, your electric bill does not come cheap. As we said earlier, you need to do everything you can to ensure that you’re geting maximum benefit from the money you spend on energy each month.

The very first place to do any transformation is exactly at your own home. Recently solar power has become more and more popular – not only for industrial use but also for family homes. A typical household would spend about $1600 per year on electric consumption. You might fall under this figure.

This is big enough right? Have you ever thought of living in a solar home – using the power of the sun to keep your energy costs down? That isn’t the end of the discussion by any menas. Much of the power that you’re paying for each month is completely wasted, and you ought to know how. Energy is wasted month after month right at your very home.Let us put it in other words: Thus, you are spending on something that you never even use. To compensate for this, you can make the following modifications to maximize the amount you save on your electricity bill.

You should not turn on or leave on excess electrical appliances, like the TV. This also goes with your stereo. Learn how to turn them off if you don’t need them. Put those lights out when you are heading out of a space in your home. Turn off air condition as well, especially if it is unlikely you will be coming back soon. You should turn off any computer monitors that you are not using since, like TVs, they consume electric power whenever they’re on. Keep the sockets free. Unplug all your chargers. None of these consume much electricity by themselves, but their combined effects can be substantial, especially on your electric bill each month. Remember that these little things, when pile up can be big.

Always reduce the level of temperature when you are going to be out of your home. Keep them low; better yet, turn it off. You are not using them anyway. Heating system consumes a large portion of your electric bill so you might as well do some necessary changes with them. If for instance you do not want to enter cold home, you can set up remote control heating system or a programmable heating system. That means you won’t need to heater to operate all the time. To save money, simply set your heating system to activate at the time you chose.

During the day, use the sun to warn up the house. The sun is free so open your drapes and windows and let your heating system rest for a while.

Close the windows and drapes at night. Instead of incandescent lights, use fluorescent. They produce more light but consume less electricity. If you don’t want to turn the lights on and off every time you go in and out of the room, you might want to get some timers, dimmers and motion sensors to do the job for you. They are worth investing for. Refrain from using hot water when washing your clothes. Also, it will give you much savings if you prefer washing on full loads. On your dishwasher, make sure you also full load them. If there are few clothes or dishes to wash, prefer using your hands. Air-dry them so that you do not consume more electricity. Doing these things doesn’t mean you deprive yourself from freely using the electricity you need. It only means that you are wisely spending every cent you pay for electric bills. Some people recently have come to the point where they even use a water-powered car to save energy. It may sound strange but you can save up to 70% gas this way.

How to Install a Low-flow Faucet Aerator

You may have noticed, but the choice to be green doesn’t have to burn a hole in your wallet. It can even be as easy as putting a $2.99 add on to your faucet. Remember, it’s easy to make more expensive mistakes if you don’t spend some time on research. Many manufacturers currently advertise their product as “earth friendly” or “green” but there are no government standards in place to define what makes an item eco-friendly or not.

Follow these 5 tips to assist you on your journey to create a kitchen that will save you money, give you a fresh new look, & save the world all at once:

1. Buy a low-flow water faucet/aerator

• Why: A shiny new faucet is a simple upgrade, but kitchen faucets can vary from 1.5 – 4 gallons per minute in water flow. Low-flow bathroom faucets with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new WaterSense label are usually 30 percent more efficient than older models.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Until the government comes up with some industry standard for low-flow kitchen faucets, for $3 to $11 you can make most new or existing taps more efficient simply by attaching an aerator. These devices save water, and lower utility bills as well, because less hot water is used. Because of this, low-flow aerators will generally pay for themselves in just a couple of months.

• Cons: With lower flow, it might take a bit longer to fill that 2 gallon pot for spaghetti night.

• Suggested Purchase: Look for a gallon per minute rating of less than 2 gallons per minute or GPM (some are as high as 4 GPM). Many Kohler faucets offer an aerator option that can reduce the GPM rate by about 25 percent. Don’t forget, even though it’s more expensive, you can purchase an adjustable aerator for your faucet. Keep the aerator on the low setting when using the sink for average use and set it to high flow to fill up big pans with water. Another green choice is a hands-free faucet, like the Danze Parma D421058, $480 or other low-flow Danze faucets.

• Keep in Mind: When you find a faucet that fits your budget and style, make sure it has a lifetime warranty that covers stains and water-wasting leaks. Also, some kitchen aerators will allow you to flip between two flow rates without affecting the water temperature

2. Switch to low wattage lighting

• Why: Modern kitchens can use up to 2,000 watts for lighting (especially track lighting) because standard incandescent, halogen, and xenon lights are energy vacuums. All that burning heat from your inefficient lights might motivate you to turn down the A/C to keep the room cool.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Switch to cool-burning compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in your fixtures, and also consider adding some LED or fluorescent under cabinet task lighting. This simple DIY fix costs about $199 for 5 fluorescent fixtures.

• Cons: A handful of CFLs and LEDs cast a bluish or other odd color light. Before you buy, ask if you can return the fixture if you don’t like the way the light looks with your décor. Even better, try the light in the store or ask an associate for a recommendation.

• Suggested Purchase: Strips are the most common type of task lighting, round “hockey puck” lights are best for casting pools of light onto a counter and linear lights are best if you need more versatile fixtures. Both circle “puck” light fictures and linear lights can be included with LEDs.

• Keep in Mind: If your cabinets don’t have a built-in valence to hide task lighting, either add one or choose a fixture with a sleek housing that’s not as noticeable.

3. Install a ceiling fan

• Why: Kitchens get hot, and if you use an air conditioner to cool things off, it will gobble up a lot of energy and money.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: A ceiling fan in the kitchen will use only a fraction of the electricity that an A/C would.

• Cons: Aesthetics, few people have ceiling fans in kitchens for a reason, it doesn’t usually look good.

• Suggested Purchase: There are a number of great models from Hampton Bay, Harbor Breeze, and Hunter, and most circulate air about the same. So rather than shop for a particular brand, go for a style you like and remember that lighting affects energy use.

• Keep in Mind: You might be able to find CFLs designed for ceiling fans that can replace the original bulbs and save energy. You need to remember CFLs on the market now don’t function correctly with fans that have light dimmers.

4. Refurbish with second hand materials

• Why: A new countertop or cabinet face can change the whole look of your kitchen, but producing them keeps coal power plants polluting the air and some “earth friendly” materials aren’t as green as they might seem.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Before you buy new, see if you can find used materials.

• Suggested Purchase: Salvage shops are stocked with new or lightly used stone countertops, hardwood flooring, decorative lumber, and kitchen cabinets, so they’re a great place to look for bargains. Even better, Habitat for Humanity sells used and surplus building materials at outlets called ReStores.

• Keep in Mind: If you will buy brand new, at least search for greener cabinets and other products made from sustainable lumber and materials.

5. Trade in/Sell the biggest energy hogs

• Why: The appliances in your kitchen that take the most energy to operate are refrigerators and dishwashers. The more geriatric these appliances are, the less energy efficient they are and the more expensive they are to run.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Only open the doors when you know what you want. Don’t waste energy by “browsing” with an open fridge. Also, it usually doesn’t pay to salvage working appliances with new ones. But when you choose to update, search for models that are quieter and need less energy. Yes, energy efficient models cost more BUT, you’ll recover the investment as your utility bills decrease.

• Suggested Purchase: Look for appliances that are Energy Star qualified. These ENERGY STAR approved fridges need only 50% of the energy as the energy hogs manufactured before 1993. Also ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerator models use high efficiency compressors, improved insulation, and more precise temperature and defrost mechanisms to improve energy efficiency. Switching out a dishwasher manufactured before 1994 with an ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher can save you more than $300 a decade in utility costs. These also use much less water than conventional models. If not on city septic, this can also help extend the life of your septic tank.

• Keep in Mind: You don’t have to get rid of all the old appliances at once. Start with the ones that are the biggest energy hogs. When repairs of your old energgy hog appliance would cost more than 50% of a new appliance, go ahead and replace them with a new one.

If this is all seems complicated some online retailers make it easier for you such as Designer Plumbing Outlet with the help of Site Search technology by SLI Systems. When browsing the fixtures on their website you can just click one button to refine your search by “Eco-Friendly” results. This helps simplify your search and makes going green even easier when buying new.