Efficient Home Energy Conservation Guide

Introduction:

Everyone, take a second and think of how many times you leave the lights on in your house when you leave your house or how long you take to shower with hot water. Imagine all that energy you are wasting since no one else is using that light or how much energy is your water heater using to produce all that hot water.

Saving energy at home is an easy way to save you a lot of money in the long run.

We need to understand the benefits of saving up energy at home along with the effective ways of how to do it exactly.

I will be showing you today, how doing something so minor as unplugging a charger from the wall plug to installing a thermostat in your house will decrease the amount of energy that you will be consuming.

Transition: What methods can I use to save energy?

Body:

Saving energy is not hard to do especially if you start fixing your house little by little.

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"The average U.S. household pays $1,900 annually in utility bills, according to the Department of Energy." (Anderson, Frick, Gerstner, Esswein, ENERGY CRISIS)

An easy process that might be costly but will benefit you tremendously is calling an energy auditor to evaluate your house and find out what is best for your house in regards to saving money. It usually costs about $250 to $600 dollars depends in the area.

If an energy auditor is not for you, and you are more of a do it yourself person, I will be describing the perfect ways to lower your utility bill.

Transition: There are many fields in which saving energy can be accomplished. Cooling, heating, lighting, appliances, water heating, electronics, and windows are the most important fields were change can be done in anyone's home.

"The biggest slices of a typical household's energy budget are heating and cooling (about 40%) and water heating and lighting (each about 10%). With a few no-sweat moves, you can reduce your annual costs by $250 to $300." (Anderson, Frick, Gerstner, Esswein, ENERGY CRISIS)

The most important way to save energy will be to install a programmable thermostat to lower utility bills and it will help you manage your heating and cooling systems efficiently.

Check for leaks around doors and windows where possible air can pass through and check if your AC is running properly. Close blinds when it's hot to block the sunlight and the UV rays and open them when it's nice and cool outside.

If no one is home, remember to put your thermostat higher so it can be at a normal temperature for example 75 F will be a perfect temperature here in the valley.

Transition: When it comes to lighting and appliances, we have to be very careful of what we are actually buying.

The lighting around your house can really benefit you if you have compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of standard bulbs or halogen light bulbs, because they are more energy-efficient and they produce the same amount of light.

"If every U.S. home replaced one 60-watt incandescent bulb with a CFL, it would save enough energy in a year to light nearly 3 million homes and equal the greenhouse-gas reduction of taking 750,000 cars off the road!" (Crane, Save Energy)

Most of us do this all the time; I know I do this almost every time I leave my house. Leaving the lights on or any appliances that are consuming energy when you leave the room is basically throwing away money, because the light or appliance is still producing energy but is being used for no one.

Plugging home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips and turning the power strips off when no one is using the equipment will reduce the energy that the electronics are consuming. Electronics that are on stand-by usually still use up several watts of power.

"One of the best things you can do to save energy is to buy the most energy-efficient devices you can," says Shahzeen Attari, an environmental engineer at Columbia University in New York City (Crane, Save Energy) Energy star logos are everywhere in appliances and are very useful because it meets energy-efficiency standards.

Transition: Water heating and having proper windows will help you cut your utility bills.

"Heating water accounts for about a third of the cost of maintain a home. Also, According to the Energy Information Administration, a unit of the Department of Energy, about one third of the heat loss in a typical home occurs through windows and doors." (Farris, 10-Minute Energy Saving Secrets)

Checking your hot water pipes or any other pipes for leaks will reduce the energy that is being wasted. It is important to also check for any cracks or leaks in your windows and doors because if you are heating or cooling your house, it won't heat or cool completely.

When you go out of town or leave for a few days, turning off your water heater will benefit how much energy it consumes, because if you leave it on it will still consume energy.

Take great advantage of the sun in the winter and block out the sun on hot days to maximize the temperature in your house. Curtains and blinds are a great way to help the temperature in your room because it keeps the hot outdoor air outside and keeps your room fresh. In the winter you can even put more layers of curtains on your windows, which will help the room stay warm.

Transition: These are some of the many ways that anyone can save energy at home.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, there is a range of effective ways to save up energy at home. Consuming less energy everywhere around your house will cut the utility bills almost in half and save you a lot of money.

"The typical U.S. family spends at least $1,900 a year on home utility bills. You can lower this amount by up to 25% by following these helpful tips." (U.S Department of Energy, Energy Saver Guide)

Hopefully these tips on saving energy at home will help you out in the future. Always remember before you leave your house, look to see what can be turned off or disconnected to save more energy. Thank you.

Citations

Anderson, J., Frick, R., Gerstner, L., Esswein, P. M. (2011). ENERGY CRISIS 2.0 SAVE MONEY AT HOME. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 65(6), p47-50

Crane, C(2011). Save Energy, Save the Environment. Science World, (67), p27

Duke Energy Progress. (2013). 100 ways to Save Energy at Home. Retrieved from https://www.progress-energy.com/carolinas/home/save-energy-money/energy-saving-tips-calculators/100-tips.page?

Farris, J. (2006). 10-Minute Energy Saving Secrets. Beverly, Massachusetts: Creative Publishing International.

U.S Department of Energy. (2014). Energy Saver Guide: Tips on Saving Money and Energy at Home. Retrieved from http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/energy-saver-guide-tips-saving-money-and-energy-home