As a parent, you know how much the monthly utility bills can contribute to your expenses. When you see them, you can feel disheartened by the large costs because they can seem completely unavoidable. However, it is possible to lower your energy expenditure by identifying the largest energy drainers in your home. These are some common things to look at for this purpose.
The Heating and Cooling Systems
When it gets too hot or cold outside, your family will want to stay comfortable inside the home by turning on the HVAC system. For warm water, you’ll also need to activate your water heater as well. Unfortunately, these take a significant amount of energy. In fact, they often make up the largest portion of your bills. You can address this issue by purchasing weather stripping that you place around your windows and doors which will better insulate your home’s interior. A regular checkup from a professional can also ensure that your air conditioning unit and furnace are functioning properly and as efficiently as possible. For you water heater, consider lowering the temperature that it is set to and placing an insulating covering around it.
The Lights
Lights are essential for any modern home, since they illuminate your rooms as you go about your activities at night or on overcast days. This also means that they are some of the largest energy drainers in your home. Certain lightbulbs are better than others, though. If you mostly use incandescent bulbs, you should switch to LEDs instead. Though LEDs cost a bit more upfront, they last around twenty-five to fifty times longer than incandescent lights and use about twenty-five percent or less of the total energy of incandescent bulbs. Given how much your family uses lights each day, this can have a huge, positive effect on your electricity costs.
The Washer and Dryer
Your washer and dryer use a lot of energy to spin and heat clothes. There are several techniques that you can use to reduce this. Simply switching to cold water instead of hot with your washer can take out most of the energy it needs to operate. You could also aim to wash and dry clothes less by only putting them in the machines when you have full loads. In some instances, your dryer might not function efficiently because its vent is clogged up with lint, which blocks the moisture inside it from exiting. You’ll need to have a maintenance service look at it to remedy this problem, but it will be well worth the long-term savings you get in return. There are other reasons why dryer vent cleaning is necessary as well, including making it less of a fire hazard.