During the summer, energy bills usually are elevated due to the amount of time the air conditioner is on. With these tips, you can not only reduce how much energy you use (good for the Earth), but also save some money which can be spent on other things (good for you). This is a win-win situation, so pay attention!
Saving Energy Tips During Summer:
- Keep your thermostat up a couple of degrees. As the weather difference between inside and outside becomes larger, cooling those last couple of degrees takes longer, and thus has your air conditioner working longer.
- On a warm sunny day, keep your blinds closed if you are not home. The blinds will keep a lot of the sunlight out of the house and cause the house to stay cool.
- Use your dishwasher and washing machine only when you have full loads. This will keep the energy bill down because you will not be wasting energy on non-full loads.
- A ceiling fan can help lower the temperature in a room by as much as 4 degrees. This will allow you to keep your thermostat higher or even off, making it work less and saving lots of energy.
- Try to avoid cooking food in the oven. It gives off a lot of heat which will cause you to use your thermostat.
- Using compact florescent light bulbs can not only save you energy by being energy efficient, they also produce less heat.
- Lower your hot water heater from 140 to 120 degrees. During hot weather, the extra 20 degrees would just be wasted and expand your heating bill even more.
If you would like to save even more money, WeatherBug Home gives professional insight into your home’s energy usage, correlated to real-time weather data from your neighborhood by the world’s largest weather observation network (ours!). Learn more here