Do you find that you have to physically and emotionally prepare yourself for the shock that arrives in your energy bills each month?
It could be time to take matters into your own hands and fight back against rising energy costs. The first thing that you need to do is go through your entire home and find the energy-wasters that are driving your usage through the roof. Next, you need to fix them or purge them.
There are dozens of possible energy-wasters in your home, but here are the usual suspects.
The Garage
Of course, the garage door opener’s energy usage is pretty minimal. However, the garage door itself could be a huge problem.
It generally takes up about a third of your home’s front façade, which means there is a lot of potential for heat-loss over the winter months. Your door may be made of inefficient materials, or it may not be making a tight seal when it closes.
If you want to make sure your money isn’t literally leaking out of the garage, you should look into basic garage door repairs or upgrading your door to an insulated model with a higher R-value.
The Windows
You may not have to upgrade and install more energy-efficient windows, although that certainly wouldn’t hurt. However, you will definitely want to seal up all the little nooks and crannies that could be leaking your climate-controlled air to the outside.
They may seem small and innocuous. However, when you add up all of those little holes, you will often find that they collectively add up to roughly a basketball-sized hole in your home.
PVRs and DVRs
This one may astound you, but these convenient little boxes are often one of the biggest energy users in your home.
The issue is that they are basically always on, and always working. As a result, putting two of these in your home could add up to as much energy use as a new refrigerator!
Hot Water Tanks
This is often an upgrade we would rather not think about, because we always feel like it’s going to be a massive pain and expense. We would rather the hot water tank just quietly did its job in the basement, out of sight and out of mind.
However, we need to remember that these units use about 14% of your home’s energy, which is more than your dishwasher, oven, and computer combined! Upgrade to a newer model and you will likely see the results on your utility bills right away, particularly if you have a household of 5 or more people taking baths and showers.
You can also most likely rent a new model from your local company at a very reasonable price, so you’re not having to offset the energy savings with a big replacement cost.
At the end of the day, the best way to be energy conscious is to take a good look at every single device you bring into your home from now on. It doesn’t matter if it’s a phone charger or a dryer. The sum of a few dozen inefficiencies can add up to a big problem.
However, looking at the 3 energy wasters we discussed today will show you an immediate savings.