We all remember the things our parents preached about when we were kids. When they weren’t paying the bills, they were talking to us about saving energy around the house. Only it didn’t come in a pleasant, eco-friendly green package – the lessons came raw and unrefined. Did you reach for the thermostat when you were cold? “Don’t touch that! Put on a sweater.” How about leaving your door open by accident? “Do you live in a BARN?!“. If the sink was left running, you’d hear “enough drops of water fill a glass“. And of course, turning off the light when leaving a room was a cardinal rule. Nowadays, things have changed, yet somehow remained very much the same. So how can we save energy at home in modern times? Below are a few easy ways!
Here’s our summary list of ways we can save energy at home. Scroll below for details and more information!
- Caulk or insulate openings around drafty windows and doors.
- Limit the hot water usage.
- Watch the weather and turn off sprinklers when rain is coming.
- Keep the thermostat lower during cold months.
- Let the light in for heat, and keep the sun away to stay cool.
- Turn off devices when not in use and unplug them.
- Clean appliance coils & vents.
- Replace rotten exterior siding and trim.
- Run appliances only when full.
- Switch from oil to natural gas.
1. Caulk Or Insulate Openings Around Drafty Windows And Doors
Building materials only last for so long. One of the most common ways materials begin to fail is by warping. Houses settle over time – cracks in the sheetrock or an uneven floor are tell-tales. Another way materials warp is due to expansion and contraction. This is particularly common in places that experience four seasons, when material goes through the freeze-thaw cycle every year. Even in the American southwest, it’s hotter during the day than at night.
This warpage is usually felt more than seen. How? When the house settles, or goes through expansion/contraction, window and door openings can start to shift. This causes gaps under doors, moldings around windows to separate and the windows themselves moving out of place. As a result, the heat or cold creeps inside our house a little at a time.
Luckily, there’s a relatively easy fix.
If you feel a draft coming through a window or door frame, locate the gaps and caulk them.
This does not require a professional for small touch-ups. Watch a few caulking tutorial videos on YouTube and you’ll see how easy caulking can be.
There are many types of caulking to choose from in a variety of colors, including clear. Make sure you buy exterior-grade caulking for outside work so it will be waterproof.
Caulking typically costs less than $15 per tube and one tube will cover two windows or doors, at minimum. Caulking guns cost less than $20. Get a few rolls of painter’s tape and some gloves ($20) to keep adjacent finishes and yourself clean.
This project should cost less than $200 for a substantial amount of window and door caulking!
Another easy way to fix drafty doors is to buy an under-door sweep or draft aid blocker. This is ideal for exterior doors, cellar doors, or the door to an unfinished room.
2. Limit Hot Water Usage
This is a heartbreaker for those who like a nice, long shower like myself. Or is it a wake-up call? You may be surprised to learn how much hot water actually gets used in other ways, too. If you want to feel like you’ve earned a nice, warm shower, consider taking the steps below.
The water bill by itself is not the concern, but rather the cost of heating the water. Most houses use electric water heaters, with a percentage of the balance being gas.
Check out this breakdown of water heater electric costs (via SFGate). An average water heater runs for three hours per day and costs about $780 per year in electricity – roughly 20% of the average household electric costs.
Here are ways we use our hot water at home. Which ones can you cut down on?
- Hot showers and baths – the longer the shower and the hotter the water, the most it costs.
- Older appliances like washing machine and dishwasher use hot water, rather than heating it themselves.
- High-volume water spouts and faucets with lots of pressure and flow straight-up use more water.
- Similar to the above, running hot water full-blast taxes your heater more.
- Old water heaters become inefficient and defective. Consider replacing it – check out this guide if you think it’s time to replace your heater.
As shown above, cutting our hot water usage by 50% can save a few hundred dollars a year! Here are a few water-efficient faucets, shower heads and spouts, too:
3. Turn Off Sprinklers When Rain Is Coming
Our lawns need water, or they turn into scorched earth. Sprinklers are a convenient, easy way to make sure our lawns get the water they need – set it, and forget it…
The problems arises when we simply forget they’re on. During hot months, lawns need to be watered about 3 times per week. In the northern parts of the U.S., this period spans from May until we start getting frost, or about 20-25 weeks out of the year. It’s safe to assume that a healthy lawn needs to be watered 60-75 times per year – and a lot more often in some parts of the southern U.S.!
However, just leaving our sprinklers to run as scheduled can use quite a bit of extra water. In New York, for example, it rains about 60 times between May 1st and mid October (via Weather-and-Climate).
Obviously this varies by state. Some states get drenched while others get almost nothing. Hot states can instead not have lawns, but crushed rock yards instead with plants that don’t need water.
Turning off sprinkler systems on rainy days can help your water bill tremendously, if you live in a rainy state.
4. Keep The Thermostat Lower In Cold Months
Whether your house uses oil, gas, hot water heating or anything in between, keeping the house warm in the winter is where we spend most of our money. While this is not a problem in warm states, the majority require heating during at least a portion of the year.
As illustrated in item 1 above and item 8 below, a lot of heat can be lost through cracks in door frames, window frames and faulty siding. I’m willing to bet that a fair amount of us throw some heat literally right out the window. Funny, but sad. Luckily, this article is focused on easy ways to solve these problems!
Until we get around to those repairs, our parents were right. Wearing an extra layer of clothing goes a long way towards saving money on heating costs. Consider becoming a house-robe-person…
5. Let In Sunshine For Warmth & Block It To Stay Cool
While air temperature is the same in the direct sun or in the shade, the temperature feels as much as 15 degrees warmer in the sunlight.
For staying warm, it’s a good idea to allow as much sunlight in as possible through every window that gets it. There are a variety of curtains and shades that allow a fair amount of sun through, while still giving you some privacy.
As for staying cool, take note of which windows get the most sunlight and consider some ‘black out’ curtains. They’re typically a heavy fabric that doesn’t allow much heat to transfer through it, and completely blocks out any light.
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6. Turn Off Electronics & Unplug Them When Not In Use
We’re all guilty of this to a certain degree. It’s convenient to leave a phone charger plugged in to the outlet next to the bed, or keep the toaster and coffee maker plugged in, but it adds up. Estimates vary, but it’s believed that items plugged in unnecessarily can tack on an additional 5-10% on your yearly energy cost! Most energy costs range between $1,000-$3,000 per year, or more. Whatever that number is, a couple hundred bucks can be saved every year staying on top of this.
There are many devices and things around the house slowly – but constantly – drawing electricity when plugged in. They’re affectionately known as ‘energy vampires‘.
In the kitchen, this includes coffee makers, toasters, mixers, etc. Bathroom items include straighteners, hair dryers and toothbrush charging stands. Throughout the house, laptop chargers, alarm clocks, computers, entertainment systems (TV, cable, video game consoles) and more draw a little at a time, and are at risk of damage in the event of a power surge.
You can make this process simple by using power strips that not only protect against power surges, but allow you to turn off several devices all at once.
7. Clean Coils/Vents & Replace Filters On Appliances
Modern appliances, such as models with an Energy Star rating, are designed to use electricity in an efficient manner. To do this, though, they have to be functioning well.
Over time, appliances get dust on them, or in them. Dust tends to gather in closed spaces, so areas behind the refrigerator, oven and dish washer get hit the hardest. Dust can build up inside the vents of these machines or on refrigerator coils – click the link to watch a video about cleaning them. These machines worker harder when they’re dusty, and therefore cost more too.
In-window air conditioners require cleaning, too. They have filters that get plenty of dust through their intake, a lot of it from outside. Not only will that begin to seep into your airspace, but it makes the A/C work extra hard. Click here and learn how to completely clean your air conditioner.
Of course, please review and follow safe cleaning practices for your appliances!
If you’re interested, there are ways you can actually track the energy usage of each individual appliance using the devices shown below. Here are a few top-rated energy monitoring products for appliances:
8. Replace Rotten Exterior Siding & Trim
Bad siding allows air to transfer into and out of our homes. By siding, we refer to the cladding of the house – shingle, clapboard, etc – as well as the backup plywood beneath it. There is a spectrum to be aware of:
When cladding rotten or even just leaky, water can seep past it and start soaking the backup wall i.e. plywood. Even when it has some waterproofing on it, a bit of sunlight and direct exposure will take it out locally. From there, it can get to insulation, which shrinks a little over time anyways. The earlier these problems get addressed, the less energy will be lost to them later, not to mention money to fix it.
This can happen even more often with rotten window sills and trim. In an older house that needs to work, there’s a good chance you can feel a draft beneath the window sills.
9. Run Appliances Only When Full
Appliances like dishwashers, washers and dryers use a lot of energy when in use. They can use a combination of electricity, gas and water depending on what you have.
These machines get used multiple times were week. That amounts to a few hundred uses per year across all large appliances. Cutting down how many loads you do by 25-33% can yield a pretty good savings every year, according to this table.
A simple way to cut down on dishes is to wash large items by hand, such as pots and pans. We can also quickly rinse and put back items that weren’t used for eating, meat, poultry, dairy and fish, rather than putting them in the dishwasher.
Another easy way to do this is to have one laundry day per week, when all laundry is done at once. It forces us to combine the laundry into as few loads as possible.
10. Use Candles Instead Of Lights
Not only do they create a nice atmosphere, but candles save us money, too. They can be surprisingly bright and come in many shapes, sizes, types and fragrances.
Plenty of them come in a jar that can be brought from place to place, and they last a long time, too.
This is a particularly good option during fall and winter months, when lights are on a lot more often.
If fire isn’t a good option for one reason or another, there are realistic battery-powered candles – some even flicker.
It goes without saying, but fire is extremely dangerous and must be used responsibly. Use candles safely! We know you probably know ;).
In Summary
We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of 10 simple ways to save energy at home! Taking a little extra time to put this list into practice will literally pay you back. Who doesn’t like having extra money?