Reducing your home energy use does not have to mean cutting back on your family’s comfort. You can save energy, and save money in the process, by making some simple changes in your family’s habits that they might not even notice. Many things you can do to reduce energy use are free, some require spending a little money before you start saving money, and some require large up-front investments that will pay for themselves over several years.
Here are some tips to save energy at home, starting with freebies and working up to more expensive options:
- Pay attention to your thermostat settings. Turn the temperature up in the summer and down in the winter when nobody is home or at night after everybody is asleep. You can do this manually, but an inexpensive programmable thermostat will do it for you automatically.
- Turn off the A/C or heat when the outside temperature matches your family’s comfort level and open your windows for ventilation. Just make sure you close up the house before the outside temperatures start rising or falling, depending on the season. Close south-facing window shades on hot summer days to keep sunlight out and open the shades on sunny winter days to let it in.
- Turn off the lights and fans when a room is unoccupied. You can install motion-detecting switches if your family keeps forgetting to flip the switch when they leave the room.
- Inspect and change your cooling and heating system filters regularly.
- Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent or LED bulbs. These cost more than incandescent bulbs, but they will pay for themselves many times over in energy savings and longer life.
- Turn your water heater setting down to 120 degrees. This will save money on fuel and keep your home safer for small children.
- Add insulation to your attic floor if it’s not within the Department of Energy-recommended R-value range of 30 to 60 here in the Wichita Falls area.
- Upgrade your HVAC systems to more energy-efficient equipment or install a geothermal heat pump system.
This is just a short list of tips to save energy at home. You can think of more based on your own situation, or call us at James Lane for advice. We have been working with homeowners throughout North Texas since 1957 to find energy-efficient ways to keep their homes comfortable.
