In our prior posts we discussed many basic ways to save energy costs in your home and office. Now we are going to go just a bit more specific for those that really want to make some serious changes.
Cook with small appliances such as toaster ovens, electric skillets, and slow cookers. These appliaced consume far less energy than your range.
Use your microwave whenever possible as this reduces the cook time and thus saving energy.
Clean and/or replace air filters on exhaust hoods, humidifiers, vacuums and of course your heater.
Run cold water in your laundry. Not only does this save energy costs, but heat will set stains.
Run cold water in your disposal. Again this saves energy and will solidify grease helping it move in pieces more effectively through the pipes.
Set refrigerator temperatures between 36 and 42 degrees. Set the freezer between -5 adn +6 degrees. Placing a small thermometer in your refrigertor and freezer will help you maintain these temperatures and save energy.
Clean the dust off the condenser coils, fins, evaporator pan and motor once or tweice a year. A clean unit runs more effeciently.
Defrost a manual-defrost unit regularly. Built up frost makes the unit work harder and wastes energy.
When possible, or when considering building a home, place your refrigertor away from direct heat or areas where direct sunlight will penetrate.
Do not place your refrigertor or freezer in an unheated space. If the external temperature reaches 60 degrees or below, the unit’s motor will slow down not only causing energy consumption but will also wear out the unit much faster.
Be sure all the seals on the oven, refrigerator, and freezer are in tact. Close a dollar bill half in, half out of the doors. If you can very easily slide the bill out, the seal is too loose.
Run full loads in your dish washer and clothes washing machine. You are using the same energy regardless the load size, so don’t waste by doing more loads than necessary. Further your energy savings by using the shortest wash cycles possible for normal loads.
These simple practices can make a serious impact on your energy savings. Stay tuned for our final installation next week on June’s Energy Saving tips.
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