Money Saving
Residential Energy and Power Saving Tips To Help Reduce Your Home Power Bill
There are a lot of ways to save energy in and around your home. You should try to take advantage of as many of them as you can, especially the easy ones. After all, they can help the planet and save you money. For example, you can try the following:
• Insulating Your Home Efficiently
• Unplugging Items That Aren’t In Use
• Use Appropriate Appliances
• Use Efficient Lighting
Insulation:
When it comes to insulation, here’s a fact that’s scary, but true. Your heating bill can be increased by as much as 50%, if you have poor home insulation. The same goes for trying to cool your home in the warm weather.
Of course, the opposite is also true. It is possible to save 50% on your home heating bill by simply keeping your home well-insulated. That means insulating your exterior walls and your roof, but it can also mean taking some extra steps.
For example, get yourself some aluminum storm doors. They are excellent for improving the energy efficiency of your home. If you’ve ever noticed a cold spot when you walk by your front door, recognize it for what it is. It’s a loss of heat. Why pay to heat the outside world? A simple storm door can keep the heat in, as well as keeping the cold in during air conditioning months.
Add To That Efficiency:
You can add to that efficiency in a number of ways. One of the best is to use ceiling fans or other small fans to circulate the air in your home. They can save up to another 15% off your heating and cooling bills. Although, it’s worth noting that they will raise your electric bill slightly.
Another way to add to the energy-efficiency of your home is to shut appliances off when you’re done using them. That can include TV sets, computers and any computer-related extras, such as speakers. Furthermore, you can save even more energy by not just shutting them off, but completely unplugging them. If you have trouble remembering to do so, get yourself some LED outlet plates or glowing wires, which are new technologies that will alert you when outlets and cords are in use.
Appliances:
You can also be energy-efficient in the kitchen. One of the best ways is to simply use appropriate appliances. For example, try getting a Breville Toaster Oven or a Cuisinart Toaster Oven, such as the Cuisinart TOB-195. Any toaster oven reviews will tell you that those are some of the top models out there today. They are much more efficient than larger ovens. So, you should use them any time that you intend to cook smaller items.
Efficient Lighting:
Another big way to keep your home energy-efficient is to use efficient lighting, both indoors and out. For example, using compact fluorescent light bulbs is 75% more energy-efficient than using regular light bulbs. Not only that, but fluorescent bulbs don’t burn nearly as hot, so they are less of a safety hazard, especially when children or animals are around.
As for the outside, you might be one of those people who has a lamp post light in your yard or a porch light that you leave on all day and all night. Lights like that waste a lot of energy running all the time. You can get around that in three ways:
• Use motion sensors to trigger your exterior lights.
• Use timers that will shut the lights off at a certain time.
• Simply do not use outdoor lights as a security system. Instead, get an actual burglar alarm for your home.
Those are just a few of the ways to increase your home’s energy efficiency and most of them are fairly easy to do. So, do your part to protect the planet. You’ll be saving the world and saving yourself money.
About the author
This is a guest post from the Christopher Jackson, at ToasterOvenGuide.com a blog aimed at helping people to find energy saving appliances for their kitchen, which also includes toaster oven reviews.

BoilersMay 9, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Another thing to look at is the efficiency of your heating! A boiler which is over a decade old for example – replace it, and you’d actually be saving yourself money virtually immediately! A good post regardless, thanks.