October is marked the National Energy Awareness Month, which is the perfect time to start promoting your power-saving habits towards a more sustainable future and environmental well-being.
Now that the summer is over, your energy expenses will rise, but before the winter hits you and you become preoccupied with holiday plans, October is the time to start creating habits that will save power throughout the next couple of seasons.
Many of the tips out there might seem too nit-picky and time-consuming, so here’s what you can do to help both the planet and your budget without having to form tons of unnecessary micro-rituals.
1. Employing Behavioral Energy Efficiency
BEE are programs suited for customers that want easy to understand, relevant and actionable instructions, based on the analysis and real-time feedback conducted by utilities or third parties acting as contracted their agents
Many of us don’t understand numbers beyond our electricity bills, and the BEE initiative is supposed to provide help, not just in managing, but understanding energy consumption that will help and promote individual action.
If these programs were conducted on average, U.S. power usage would drop 26,000 GWh per year, electricity bills would decrease by $3 billion and CO2 emissions would be reduced by more than 8.9 million metric tons.
2. Understanding Electricity Price Plans
With some knowledge imparted you can start making informed decisions based on the electricity supply your household needs. Stressing over every little thing that uses more power than it really needs to might seem like fighting a windmill, while always staying a bit discomforting.
This is preventing many people from engaging in such actions of global importance. But seeing how you can save significant money on your electric bill while staying sufficiently comfortable is an important factor.
Saving money is the goal here as well and exercising your knowledge of electricity plans may further help you understand the benefit of competing energy providers. A careful comparison of the packages offered by different providers, you can do this online also at https://usave.co.uk/energy/. This way you can get the same electricity at lower prices. If you need further information, get more on this site.
3. Investing in a Home Energy Audit
As for the fixes you should make for a more energy-efficient and comfortable home, you can install an energy assessment or audit, that can give you the whole picture of your house and its power use.
This is the first step to be taken before any concrete improvements and upgrades. This way, you’ll gain significant insight into your expenses. Further down the line, it will help you prioritize certain aspects of power consumption based on individual analysis and make smarter and more efficient optimization plan. In the end, you should be able to cut off 30% of your bills.
4. Maintaining Heating Systems
Energy expenses and electricity bills jump up during cold seasons, and heating makes for more than 40% of residential power use. While you can’t help heating, you can minimize your bills and expenses just by maintaining your HVAC system.
Checking for air leaks can save you up to 20%, as improper isolation can be a major source of energy waste. However, more commonly, the problem is caused by dirty filters that many don’t think of as an issue. But clogged filters prevent the airflow, which leads to more power consumption, overheating and, if left unattended, furnace failure.
On a smaller scale, this goes for your refrigerator as well. Cleaning the coils behind your fridge will help it work more properly and stop it from having to waste additional energy.
5. Making Smaller Investments
Here are some smaller investments that might serve you in the long run but don’t require much maintenance.
- Smart Power Strips
Smart power strips are advised as a solution to vampire devices. If you want to cut down on phantom energy, these are a good way of shutting it all down with one click.
- LED Lights
In comparison to incandescent light bulbs, LED bulbs use over 75% less power. They use only 11 to 12 watts while still emitting as much light as a 50-watt incandescent bulb would
- Mobile App for Saving Energy
There are apps like Kill-Ur-Watts and Energy Tracker which can help you manage your power consumption. They are a small investment, costing less than a dollar, but highly-useful.
Go easy on the environment with these tips. For more energy saving tips to make your house more energy efficient by accessing energy saving grants from a specialist like energysavinggrants.org related to the energy sector.
There is a way to both make it easier for you and the environment, without compromising your well-being. We hope this helps you, not only in becoming aware, but active in this month’s initiative.
