Options such as sun, water or wind are great producers of energy without negative impacts to the environment. They also offer cost effective solutions for your home. If you want to incorporate green habits in your home immediately, read the following article to learn how to save money and the planet.
Always search out qualified professionals before beginning anything. Prior to getting a green energy system, it is important that you know all you can about it so you can really save money. Avoid salespeople who don't seem to be able to prove that their system is energy efficient and seem more interested in making a sale than answering your questions.
One clever way to conserve energy is to thaw frozen food in a refrigerator. Thawing your food in the refrigerator allows the cold air to be released back into your refrigerator resulting in reduced energy needed to run the appliance.
Get your home greener by being more responsible with how much light you are using. During the months when sun is brightest, avoid using lights before a certain time of day. Use dimmers to cut down on light use, and use sensors and timers to make sure that lights aren't kept on if no one is inside the room.
Keep track of how much electricity is used in your home with a home energy monitoring device. These products collect real measurements of energy consumption and estimate your bill. Research shows that consumers are more likely to cut down on their energy consumption when they can see exactly what it costs to run appliances, lights and so forth.
Turn your thermostat to 60 when you are away from home and also at bedtime. Keeping your thermostat on a low temperature will allow you to lower your overall energy usage. You will decrease energy used and increase money saved.
When Christmas or other holidays roll around, try LED decorative lights instead of traditional lights to spruce up your home. A U.S. Department of Energy study shows that people waste a lot of energy on traditional Christmas lights. We could save at least a couple billion kilowatt hours if each person would make this change. That is enough electricity to power 200 thousand homes for a whole year. Even if you don't care about those big numbers, you should care that you can personally save money by going green.
Examine your insulation to see if you can improve the warmth of your home without increasing your heating costs. Any home over thirty years old probably needs more insulation to be more energy-efficient. This will make your home retain more heat, which will cut your heating bills by quite a bit.
One of the simplest ways to be environmentally friendly is to install a water-saving toilet. Up to 50% of your home's water is used by the toilets in your home. Older models typically waste 5 gallons to flush, whereas newer models that are water-saving use about 10.6 gallons. This can save 70% of your water usage each year.
Think about installing a shower head that saves water. You will save a lot of water, but you will feel the same in the shower. You will realize significant savings on your water bill every month, and your efforts will also greatly benefit the planet.
Try collecting rainwater for use in appliances, like your toilet. This can reduce your monthly water bill, and it's environmentally friendly. Use glass jars to collect rainwater and close them once they are full.
Choose to get most of your correspondence via email. In other words, choose to go paperless in any way you can. Businesses will have a much easier time communicating with you, and they will be saving energy. This benefits everyone in society along with your own business.
Check out the quality and condition of your insulation to keep your home warm without hurting the environment. Older homes, especially those more than 30 years old, are probably not adequately insulated. Insulating is a good investment. Having quality insulation will improve the energy efficiency of your home, reducing energy costs and keeping your home comfortable.
Use solar energy to provide hot water cheaply. You can purchase a hot-water system that is run by solar energy. Research the benefits of an indirect versus direct circulation system. The indirect system is a a great thing to have and you do not have to think about having frozen pipes during the winter.
Turn on your oven light to save energy while baking. The oven light will allow you to check your food without opening the oven door. When you open the oven door you lose a lot of the heat.
One great way of conserving energy is to ensure the dishwasher is only turned on when full. It's sacrilege to turn it on with just one or two dishes inside. You'll be shocked at the amount of dishes it can hold. Strategically load your dishwasher so that you fit in as many dishes as possible.
Find out about the various energy sources that are available in your local community. Compare costs and look up regulations on green energy and tax incentives. You might find that you could save money by switching from an electric furnace to a natural gas one, for instance, or from using municipal water to your own well water.
Don't use bottled water anymore. In many cases, bottled water is simply municipal water that has been bottled, and bottling and shipping it wastes lots of energy. If you are suspicious of your area's water supply, try using a re-usable metal bottle with a replaceable filter.
Don't use bottled water anymore. Bottled water is generally tap water for a city's water supply, and the the whole bottling process uses too much energy. If you want to drink tap water but don't trust the source, consider buying a filter for your tap, or even a Brita water jug.
While solar energy may not be a whole-house option for your home, consider a partial solar set-up that can offset part of your utility consumption. You can use solar panels to heat water, for example.
You may be someone who isn't thinking about environmental impacts all the time, and most likely you aren't alone. It is possible for you to begin changing this, however, due to the fact that you have gained more knowledge about green energy. Use the ideas that work for you, both small and large, and you'll help to make the planet environmentally safe for generations to come
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