FREE and EASY Ways to Reduce Energy Usage

1. “Turn off the lights you’re not using” I wonder how many times our fathers said that! Great advice and something to teach our kids too. Unused light is wasted electricity. It costs very little to turn on a light. If you are going to be out of the room for a minute or more, turn it off.
    
2. Open those shades; let the winter sun shine. Be sure to take advantage of the one and only safe nuclear reactor, our sun. It will brighten your days, lessen the need for electric lights, and warm you too.
    
3. Set your heating thermostat a little lower. We can’t say at what temperature you are comfortable, but a degree or two lower will save energy and can easily be compensated for with light and comfortable clothes, a lap blanket, or ear muffs (just kidding).
    
4. Set your water heater at the “right” temperature. What is the right temperature? Just hot enough for the one who likes the hottest shower. Others can add a little cold, plus you lessen the chance of scalding the unwary. This saves energy in two ways – first you don’t heat water to a temperature hotter than needed, and secondly you don’t store water hotter than is needed, which is often the bigger cost.
    
5. Set your refrigerator to between 37 and 40 degrees F. Colder settings waste electricity and don’t provide fresher food. Colder settings may cause some food to freeze that you don’t want frozen. If you don’t have an appliance thermometer, a regular outdoor thermometer will do nicely.
    
6. Set your freezer to stay at around 0 degrees F. Food frozen to 0 will keep longer than food “just” frozen. Also, food at 0 will keep longer should you loose power. This is especially important for large freezers, where the investment in food can be very significant.
    
7. Another freezer tip. If your freezer is partially full, freeze plastic jugs of water. This reduces energy usage because keeping water frozen takes less energy than keeping air cold, especially if the door is frequently opened. Plus if you do loose your power a full frozen freezer will stay frozen about two days instead of just one for a freezer half-full freezer.
    
8. Walk or take a bike when you can. Those short trips can be a great opportunity to save gas and exercise. Short trips are the very worst, in terms of gas mileage too – starting up an engine uses “extra” fuel and using your car while it is warming up is less efficient. Better to combine errands to minimize both of these inefficiencies.
    
9. When you do drive, accelerate gently. Jack-rabbit starts waste fuel and typically save little time. They also cause wear and tear on your engine, drive train, and tires.
    
10. Minimize hard braking. Anticipate your stops and take your foot off the gas and let gravity slow your car when it is safe and not inconsiderate to do so. Braking converts your car’s motion to heat, wears your break pads, and wastes energy.
     
11. Close the windows if it is getting hot outside. Keep the cool air inside. Your house will take longer to heat up by conduction (heat passing through walls and windows) than when aided by convection (heat carried by air).
     
12. When it gets too hot inside, open windows that provide for natural ventilation. Moving air accelerates evaporation on the skin and helps us feel cooler. Use a fan to help this natural process, before flipping on that AC switch.
     
13. Evaluate you lighting needs. Do you have bulbs brighter than needed for the tasks completed in an area? If so, reducing wattage will save money and reduce glare.

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