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Simple Home Energy Savings Tips

For most homeowners, utility costs are the second biggest monthly expense after the mortgage. The sting of the first bill after summer or winter begin is something that we are all familiar with but there are several ways to reduce that expense without having to spend a lot of money. In fact, a little investment in making your home more energy-efficient in the short term can lead to significant savings immediately and further down the road as well.

Let's start with the attic. If you've ever flown over a neighborhood in the winter you may have noticed that some houses have a thick blanket of snow on their roofs while others remain bare. The ones with the bare roofs are leaking so much energy through their attics that the snow has melted in a short time. This is easily remedied by installing additional insulation that will pay for itself many times in the years to come. Additionally, if you wrap your hot water heater in an insulating sleeve, you can recoup that cost in about three months in reduced energy costs.

Windows account for 10 to 25 percent of your overall heating bill. Caulking or weather stripping around windows, doors, and chimneys can cut your energy costs by up to 10 percent. In the coldest months, plastic sheeting on the windows on the west and north sides of the house can further reduce costs. The sheeting might not be pretty on the inside but it is a very cheap and efficient way to save a few more bucks. Installing a door sweep is yet another inexpensive, lasting measure that you can take to cut down on drafts.

Lighting is another aspect to look at. Fluorescent bulbs last 6 to 10 times as long as incandescent and if you replace just 25 percent of your light bulbs in high-traffic areas with compact fluorescents, that alone can cut your lighting bills in half.

Heating and cooling make up the single largest percentage of your energy bill. Simple maintenance of your existing systems by timely replacement of filters, lubrication of bearings, and installing automatic setback thermostats are very easy ways to improve efficiency on the cheap. Replacing older furnaces with new models that are designed to save energy may seem like a daunting expense initially but if you sit down and do the math, they can pay for themselves in just a few years.

These days new appliances come with two tags, the price tag, and the energy price tag. Appliances and other products with the Energy Star label have been approved by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency as the most energy-efficient of their class. Your wife hates that old refrigerator anyway.

Planting two or three deciduous trees on the north and west sides of the house can also help to keep your home cooler in the summer. This brings an additional benefits of adding value and beauty to your property for many years to come.

These few measures can have a lasting and significant effect on your monthly expenses. A few hours spent in preventative measures will be rewarded in short-term savings now and huge savings in the years to come.

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