If you’re struggling to pay for your mortgage and home expenses, decreasing your energy bill will greatly help you. In fact, people can’t seem to agree on anything political when it comes to energy and climate change, but most people don’t want to overpay for energy and most people do not want to frivolously waste it. Luckily there are many things you can do to save both money and energy, and it doesn’t have to be from renovating your entire home. Read below to find some fixes that will make your home more energy-efficient.
Heating & Cooling
The most expensive use of home energy is space heating. It takes up an estimated 40 percent of energy, and if it is not working efficiently, as much as 30 to 50 percent of the energy is wasted. It goes without saying that because heating represents the most expensive energy use the majority of ways you can make your home more energy-efficient. Everything from insulation of the materials to the air that leaves through your windows and doors, all of these things affect the heating and cooling of your home and your use of energy.
Windows
Making sure your windows are as insulated as possible is a great way to ensure hot and cold air stay in. First, you see if your glass has a thin film installed over it. If not you could look into your insulating glaze options and reduce the amount of energy you use inside. Window frames also affect this. Using the right frames for your climate can reduce the energy used on appliances that control inside temperatures like heaters and air conditioners.
It’s not just the windows that keep air in, blinds, curtains, and drapes are also important. The color of your blinds can either reflect or attract heat. Light colors on the outside will keep out hot during the summer and dark colors will attract heat in the winter. Thick curtains can be used to keep in during the cold months. Finally, you can use ventilation in the hot months when you want to let cool air in to avoid using air conditioning.
Insulation
According to MoneyPug, a site used for mortgage comparison, while much of the insulation has to do with what your house was built with, there are changes you can make to keep the air in and out. First roofing insulation can be installed to reduce the heat gain from the roofing material passing your home by stopping the transfer between the roof space and rooms. Installing wall cavity insulation around stud frames and within solid walls can help you save a lot of energy, but to 20 percent that comes from heating and cooling. Floor insulation can help you manage the temperature as well, retaining warmth and reducing the effort required from your heater. Downlight protectors also reduce heat loss.
Water Heater
Your water heater is another heating source that uses a lot of energy. Everything can affect its efficiency, even the showerhead. Low-flow showerheads use approximately half the water that conventional showerheads do while maintaining an adequate level of water pressure. The system you have should be high quality. It’s an investment, but you will save money over time because it will consume less energy and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The setting of your thermostat is also very important. The position of your water system, if it takes a long time for the pipes to get where they need to go, it will waste energy heating the water. Finally how much you use hot water will change your bills.
These are the only heating and cooling expenses, you can also make changes to other parts of your house. Heating is the most expensive, however, and when you make an effort to change these things and keep the use of heat and cooling down, you really see a difference in your bills. Not only will you pay less money, you will be doing your part to decrease the amount of energy we use. It’s very important that we all use less heating and cooling to burn less fossil fuels. Until we make the transition to a fully renewable society, we will have to watch how much we are using.