Tips on Improving Home Energy Efficiency

Reducing your energy consumption not just lowers your bills but also increases the national-level energy security and reduces the amount of pollution emitted by non-renewable sources of energy.

Here are a few tips to take your energy efficiency a notch up:

Cool your house smartly

A significant chunk of your monthly household expenses goes into the heating and cooling functions. You’d be surprised to know that you can bring your utility bills down by adjusting how the heating and cooling systems work.

Try swapping your air conditioner with a ceiling fan. They tend to use lower amounts of energy. Replace the air filters in your heating and cooling appliances periodically. Adjust your thermostat to specific temperatures according to the requirements. Turn it down at night if the home is unoccupied. We recommend lowering it for around eight hours a day.

Try and invest in a programmable thermostat. It’ll automatically turn down when there is no one at home. Make sure there are curtains over the windows so the room remains insulated. Wood stoves and pellet stoves are more energy-efficient than furnaces—try those.

Get a tankless water heater

Much of your heating expenses come from the way that you heat your water. Tank-based water heaters tend to store heated water all the time, which results in unnecessary heating expenses and standby heat losses. On the contrary, a tankless water heater only heats water when it’s needed. This is also why they’re known as on-demand water heaters. Every time you turn on the heater, cold water travels via the pipe and int where a gas burner heats up the water. As a result, you don’t need to wait for the storage tank to fill up with hot water.

Switch to LEDs

Lighting also constitutes a major part of your average household expenses, and traditional incandescent lights are to blame. You’d be surprised to know that these lights only use as much as 10% of the energy and waste the rest—which further adds to your bills. The good news is that newer technologies such as CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) and LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are more energy-efficient options and can reduce your energy consumption by 50% to 75%. They also last around ten times longer, reducing the need for replacement.

If you’re based in Philadelphia, BG Electric Service LLC is your go-to electrician. Other than installing fixtures such as fans, LED lights, and dimmers, we also provide residential and commercial rewiring services. Please take a look at our service details.