Reduce your carbon footprint, pay less on utilities and save money by making your home a little greener. Buying a new Green home or splashing out on expensive equipment and alterations are not necessary. Follow these simple tips to save energy at home and join the green revolution. The home energy saving tips will hopefully help save you money on fuel.
Home Energy Saving Tips Save Energy Used By Your Geyser.
The geyser is arguably the largest consumer of electricity in your home. It also wastes the most energy. Turning the geyser on and off does not help. To ensure sound isolation, keep the temperature at the lowest heat comfortable for your use. The temperature of your geyser should be between 55°C and 65°C. However, if you want to save money, 55°C would be optimum. It takes more energy to warm up a cold geyser of water. It takes less energy to keep a geyser at a reasonable mean temperature. Turning the geyser off for days at a time would be an exception.
Install a geyser blanket. A geyser loses on average one degree Celsius per hour. As a result, constant energy is needed to maintain the temperature. However, a geyser blanket can reduce energy use by 50%. This makes your geyser more economical. The average domestic geyser will save 300kWh/year by using this sort of insulation. Recommended Geyser insulation is the Isotherm 145mm and not the thin commercially bought Geyser blankets as they are a waste of money. This has proven to be one of the good energy-saving tips that have helped many families save energy. One of the best options in his category is undoubtedly a solar geyser. Solar energy is very cost-effective.
Optimising your Pool Pump
From a Home energy saving tips point of view, the geyser and the pool pump are the biggest culprits for wasted energy in the average domestic residence. Firstly: you need to look at how long your pool pump is running in a day. Most people run the swimming pool pump on an average of 8 hours a day. This will adequately circulate and clean your water. Most pool pumps on the domestic market do this for 4 – 6 hours a day. You will need to monitor your pool pump’s efficiency to decide how many hours you can spare. Then buy a timer for your motor. This way, you can experiment and see how many hours your pool can afford to save.
Buy an EE Motor to save energy from your pool use in the long run. Replacing your existing pump motor with an Energy Efficient motor can save you up to 33% on your electric bill. A 1 HP pump switched to a 1HP EE pump motor can save you an estimated R200 a month. If you add the cost of the motor, this will be one of the best home energy saving tips.
Reducing Phantom Energy Usage
This is the latent electricity usage by appliances in the home. “In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while products are turned off.” (US Dept of Energy.) 6% of all national residential electricity use is from phantom or latent loads. To deal with this, unplug devices and appliances, not in use. Switch off the lights and have a look around at all the pilot lights shining in your house.
To save energy at home, you need to consider your appliances seriously. You don’t have to go out and replace all your appliances. But if you are replacing appliances, look for the Energy Star label when purchasing hardware. Energy Star devices and appliances use between 10 and 50% less energy and water than conventional counterparts. These appliances may cost more than those without the Energy Star designation. However, in most cases, they will more than make up that additional cost through energy savings. Following some of these home energy saving tips will help you reduce your monthly spending on energy.
Save energy with your Light bulb choices.
Most people are aware of the inefficiencies and energy drain of incandescent bulbs. So replacing them with CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) has been the best option so far. This extends the life of a bulb by approximately five years and uses 7% less energy. There has been concern about mercury leakage from these bulbs in landfills. However, Energy Star says that CFLs do not release mercury when in use and reduce mercury emissions because they lessen the need for electricity from power plants that emit mercury.
Be that as it may, we now have LEDs. The light-emitting diode (LED) is one of today’s most energy-efficient lighting technologies. Therefore LED lights require less energy and hence save you electricity. They can last up to 50,000 hours. They do not contain hazardous solids, liquids or gases. LEDs also don’t flicker and can be bedimmed. There is no high-powered discharge that can have a detrimental effect on the eyes. LEDs are the way of the future for lighting.
If you follow this simple advice, reducing energy use in the home is a tangible and achievable goal. Make a decision today to reduce energy in your home. This will save you money, and it will keep the environment as you lower your carbon footprint on the planet.
Installing LED light means you can have 13 LED lights on and use less energy than one of the 40-watt bulbs. Energy-saving bulbs will save loads of cash. For example, 4o watt downlights will reach temperatures of up to 270 degrees. This has been one of the best home energy saving tips in my home, along with the insulation.
One of the Most Important Home Energy Saving Tips is Roof Insulation
Roof Insulation is the most essential energy-saving tip. Roof Insulation will save loads of money on energy saving. However, it is essential to install the correct type of insulation as well as the correct thickness. It has been estimated that a well-insulated home will cover the cost of insulation in three years. Good quality insulation products like the Isotherm 145 mm Roof Insulation will give you the correct R-value. This insulation is our most popular brand right now as it is dust-free and allergy-free—polyester base insulation with no chemicals and resin binders.
Then there is the Aerolite Insulation, a fibreglass insulation product. We would only install the Aerolite 135 mm as this is SANS compliant. However, we do not recommend the Isotherm in homes with many downlights. Finally, saving energy in the house directly impacts climate change; therefore, saving energy is beneficial to the homeowner and our environment.