Insulating the savings

Before you make any major changes to your heating or cooling system, you should take a look at your houses level of insulation. A poor insulated house will cost a whole lot more to heat and cool. The picture I have with this post demonstrates what a house looks like through a thermal imaging screen.
Some key areas to insulate are around doors, windows, exterior walls and attic spaces. Older windows can cause a lot of heat and cooling loss. Improperly sealed doors can make a big void letting your inside air to escape. One area that is over looked the most is the attic. This should be the number one place to have insulated for cold conditions because heat rises, which allows it to escape with ease. In my upcoming post I will be discussing what we can do to correct these problems.

the next step in lighting

There is one other form of light bulb that is better than florescent light bulbs. It is called LED lighting. LED light bulbs have been becoming popular in flashlights and automotive lighting. LED lighting can save half of what florescent light bulbs cost to run.

There is also no warm up time with LED light bulbs. They are as bright as they will be right away. Another plus about them is that they don’t contain any mercury like florescent lighting. There life expectancy is more than 30,000 hours. This is 6 times longer than florescent bulbs. LED are a lot more durable than florescent bulbs which make them more applicable in areas that exhibit a lot of shock and vibration. Turning LED lights on and off doesn’t hinder the life expectancy of the bulb. LED do not produce any UV (Ultra Violet) rays.

Down fall of LED lighting is that they are only good for spot lighting. They only offer 120 degree of lighting compared to 360 or florescent bulbs. Other down fall it the cost. For a 13 watt bulb which is equivalent to a 100 watt standard bulb it’s about 50 dollars.

Screw in the start of your savings

On average home lighting is accountable for around ten percent of a home’s electrical bill. Lighting in some homes can reach up to 20 percent of its monthly electrical bill. With light bulbs being one of the easiest thing to change and cheapest, this should be the first change to start saving on electrical bills. Most people still light their homes with traditional light bulbs called incandescent light bulbs. Reason for people using traditional light bulbs is that they have been around the longest and their the cheapest to perches.
Florescent bulbs have just started flooding the market making them a little more expensive for this reason. Also florescent light bulbs have more intricate parts to them which brings the cost of them up. On average florescent light bulbs last up to ten times longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs. The money saved on the life of these bulbs is just one of the benefits of using them, on average homes that switch to florescent lighting save up to 75 percent on the lighting portion of their bill.
Now I’m not recommending that everyone goes out and throws their light bulbs out and puts all florescent one in their place. As your light bulbs start to fail and need replacement this would be the proper time to switch to florescent bulbs. Most likely over a year you will have all your lights converted. So with a little upfront cost you can save money in the long run. Keep fallowing this post for more upcoming energy saving tips.

household energy usage chart

This pie chart shows the electrical consumption for an average house in the United States. This chart is going to give an idea on what areas my fallowers should focus on and take action on making more efficient. Just switching to fluorescent lighting will save seven percent on your bill. Better insulation will cut down on the heating portion of your bill. Changing to an on demand hot water heater will cut the water heater portion down also. In upcoming post I will be discussing insulating tips, different hot water heaters, different lights and much more energy saving tips to help save money.