If you think you may be losing out on home energy savings, you’re probably right.
Here are over 15 home energy savings tips and tools that you can use to save an incredible amount of your home’s energy—all while helping the environment and keeping more money in your pocket.
1. Try the Home Energy Yardstick to See How You Measure Up
Perhaps the best place to start is to find out how you’re doing in the first place. The EPA’s Home Energy Yardstick is a simple assessment tool for comparing your home’s annual energy use compared to similar homes. Just answer a few basic questions about your home and you’ll get a score on a scale of 0-10 and an estimate of your home’s annual carbon emissions.
2. Create a Home Profile with the ENERGY STARⓇ Home Advisor
With the Energy StarⓇ Home Advisor profile, you can get customized and prioritized recommendations unique to your home, build your list of improvements and track your progress.
3. Choose an ENERGY STARⓇ “Most Efficient 2018” Product
A new distinction, the EPA’s ENERGY STARⓇ Most Efficient 2018 recognizes products that deliver cutting-edge energy efficiency along with the latest in technological innovation.
4. For Your New Build, Search for Local Incentives
There are plenty of incentives for building an ENERGY STARⓇ certified new home. Take a minute to locate special incentives in your area.
5. Use Certified LED Bulbs and Brighten a Life
Not only will you increase your own home energy savings, but buying Certified LED bulbs can also Brighten a Life across the country. Choose a home building organization that will make a donation to support local community service projects with every bulb you buy.
6. Save More Than $200 a Year by Sealing and Insulating
Properly sealing and insulating the following parts of your home can save you more than $200 a year in heating and cooling costs:
- Exterior (the outer walls, ceiling, windows, and floor)
- Forced-Air heating and cooling ducts
- Air registers
- Chimney
- Plumbing stack
- Attic Hatch or Door
7. Use the Correct Cooling Capacity for Your Room Size
When buying a room air conditioner, larger doesn’t always mean cooler…it’s actually less effective and wastes energy at the same time. Make sure your unit is sized properly for your room for upping your home energy savings.
8. Unplug Your Electronics
It’s surprising how much of your home’s energy consumption is used up by consumer electronics even when they are turned off – up to 15% in fact. Unplug everything you can when not in use to better control energy seepage.
9. Shower Under a Low-Flow Shower Head
For the average family, nearly 40 gallons of water per day are used for showering. If you switch to a low-flow shower head, you’ll use half a gallon of water less per minute than with a standard shower head.
10. Fix Your Leaky Faucet
A water leak can waste up to 3,600 gallons of water (and up to $200) after a year. Fix your faucet for an easy home energy savings solution.
11. Switch on the Ceiling Fan
In the summer, turn up your thermostat by two degrees and turn on your ceiling fan (which should be blowing air downward) for a home energy savings of 14% over the season.
12. Use Your Dishwasher Efficiently
By running only full loads and using the air-dry option, you can make the most efficient use of your dishwasher.
13. Don’t Waste Range Heat
Did you know you can waste over 40% of your stove’s burner heat by using a 6” pot on an 8” flame? That amounts to about $36 annually on your energy bill. Other tips include covering pots to keep the heat in, keeping the burners clean, and not opening your oven door to check on your baking.
Another idea? Use your microwave, toaster, toaster oven, small electric griddle, or outside grill instead.
14. Follow Rules of Thumb for Thermostats
Follow the rules of thumb for proper thermostat use and you can save about $180 every year in energy savings.
15. Turn Down, Wrap, or Upgrade Your Water Heater
If your water heater is set at or above 140°F, you can waste between $36 to $61 annually in standby heat losses alone and more than $400 in consumption losses. Set at 120°F instead.
If you have an older water heater, improve its insulation by wrapping it with an insulating jacket. Or, upgrade to a more efficient model.
16. Clean Your Dryer’s Lint Trap
A super easy energy saving tip, cleaning your dryer’s lint trap before every load will really increase its drying efficiency since it helps the air to move sufficiently.
17. Control Your Fixtures With a Timer
Whether it’s your lights, sprinklers, HVAC system, or appliances, hooking them up to timers can be a great way to increase your home’s energy savings.
Moving Forward With These Energy Saving Tips and Tools
Now that you have a whole bevy of home energy saving tips and tools right at your fingertips, it’s the perfect time to keep the momentum going. Just choose one energy saving tip to start and systematically work your way through the list. Don’t get overwhelmed, just enjoy the process of increasing your home’s efficiency, count up the dollars saved, and feel good about helping out our fragile environment…one home energy savings tip at a time.