For this list of 5 energy saving green ideas, I should first mention a little something about “latent energy consumption”. This is something that can account for up to 73% of most average homes’ energy bills. The fact is that whenever you switch off most appliances, these things are still drawing power and using up electricity! What are some of these appliances, and how does this happen?
Here’s where we discover some very simple and easy ways to achieve a sizable amount of energy saving. Green-minded people as well, might not realize the full impact on cutting down on latent energy consumption, so do keep these things in mind; any and all appliances which use a remote control (televisions, stereo systems, even some home computers), a digital readout display (such as microwave ovens, for example), or indicator LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes, such as those on cell phone chargers, battery chargers, etc.), all continue to use electricity as long as they remain plugged into the wall. Think about that for a bit, and you can see where the following information can lead to a lot of energy saving, “green living” practices acquired or not.
Energy Saving Green Idea #1;
Start to use power strips – you know, they’re like electrical extension cords, with a panel supplying an array of plug outlets, also equipped with a power switch, and often with surge and spike protection. Set up “stations” around your home… for instance, have an “entertainment station” – this is where you would plug in your TV, VCR, DVD player, stereo, and so on, into one of these power strips – this way, you can simply flip the power switch on the power strip panel, and all of the appliances plugged into it will cease consuming electricity at once. Another “station” might be for food – microwave ovens, coffee makers, anything which has a digital display – you can shut off all at once, and turn it all on again later. Do this for chargers of various types as well.
Energy Saving Green Idea #2;
Get to know which of your appliances suck the most electricity, and use them less, or if possible, not at all. These can be things like your vacuum cleaner, your iron, etc. If you have these running and watch your kilowatt-hour meter while they are, it might just make your hair turn white… these consume cast amounts of electricity in very little time. Some of us out there actually use a vacuum on linoleum or hardwood flooring – why? A broom does just as well, and uses no electricity. These days, as far as ironing goes, many fabrics are wrinkle-free, and thankfully, we aren’t just confined to polyester like back in the seventies.
Energy Saving Green Idea #3;
Heat consumption is another thing – we can turn down our home’s thermostat to a cooler temperature while we sleep under warm covers and turn it back up in the mornings. Also, during times when no-one is home, such as during work and school hours, who are we heating the house up for? For more convenience, we can install timer mechanisms to our thermostats, so that the heat can be shut of within moments before leaving the house or going to sleep, and turned back on at about a half-hour before returning in the afternoon/evening, or waking up in the morning. This alone can save tons of your hard-earned money, representing a considerable amount of saved expenses.
Energy Saving Green Idea #4;
Use the previous idea applied to another part of your house – your hot water heater. This is something that is on constantly, but really needn’t be. You can switch it on and off at opportune times, such as those mentioned above, in order to save huge amounts of energy expense which would otherwise be wasted. This too can be fitted with a timing mechanism in order to set it to shut itself off and turn itself back on again at the most proper and convenient times. This is also a large consumer of energy expenses, and using this technique to cut down on wasteful energy consumption for both heating and hot water will save you quite a bit enough to surprise you, seriously.
Energy Saving Green Idea #5;
For this last little tip, let’s talk about lighting and its relationship with heating and air conditioning. If you keep all your window curtains open to let natural light in, you’ll obviously save on lighting expenses, as well as heating in the wintertime, but in the summer, few people realize, it may be best to do this to a lesser degree and use artificial lighting when needed. Why? Because the sunlight that pours into your windows will also heat up your house in the hot summer, causing you to turn on the air conditioner – this takes up more electricity than the lighting does. Keeping the curtains shut also has a cooling effect on the house, so artificial lighting actually helps cut down on air conditioning expenses. Use these 5 energy saving green ideas to cut down on energy expenditure in your home, and you may find that your bills will be surprisingly cut down by more than half the cost.
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