Cut Your Energy Costs!

We've got great tips on where and how to save energy and money at home.

• Lighten Up Your Energy Bill With Fluorescent Lamps
  
• Cut Your Costs on Water Heating
  
• Cook Up Savings in the Kitchen
  
• Reduce Energy Costs While Doing the Laundry
  
• Use Window Coverings
  
• Save Money Without Sacrificing Comfort
  
• Be Fireplace Savvy
  
  

Winter Energy-Saving Tips

Lighten Up Your Energy Bill With Fluorescent Lamps
If you replace 25% of your lights in high-use areas with fluorescents, you can save about 50% on your lighting energy bill. Although fluorescent lamps are more expensive than incandescents, they more than pay for themselves -- lasting 6 to 10 times longer and saving energy to boot. Exterior lighting is one of the best places to use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Like traditional long-tube fluorescents, CFLs have a long life, but are smaller so that they can fit in many residential fixtures. If you live in a cold climate, be sure to buy a lamp with a cold-weather ballast. Use 4-foot fixtures with reflective backing and electronic ballasts for your garage and laundry areas, and consider 4-watt mini-fluorescent or electro-luminescent night-lights. CFLs can also be used in portable table and floor lamps, and even in torchiere fixtures; consider carefully the size and fit of CFLs when you select them.

Cut Your Costs on Water Heating
Water heating is a home's third largest energy expense after heating/cooling and appliances. While it isn't the biggest energy concern, there are still a few ways to save on water heating: Use less water by repairing leaky faucets promptly and installing nonaerating, low-flow faucets and showerheads. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 115 degrees and insulate your hot-water storage tank and pipes. (Do not cover the thermostat, and for gas or oil units, do not cover the heater's top, bottom, or burner compartment, as this could create a fire hazard. When in doubt about properly insulating your water heater, get professional help.) Finally, buy an energy-efficient water heater. Look for the EnergyGuide label that tells how much energy the water heater uses in one year. Also look for the FHR (First Hour Rating), which measures the maximum hot water the heater will deliver in its first hour of use. While an energy-efficient water heater may cost more initially than a standard water heater, the energy savings will continue during the lifetime of the appliance.

Cook Up Savings in the Kitchen
Use a covered kettle or pan to boil water; it's faster and uses less energy. It's also more efficient to match the size of the pan to the burner. If you cook with electricity, turn the oven and stovetop burners off several minutes before the allotted cooking time -- the heating element will stay hot long enough to finish the cooking without using more electricity. Use pressure cookers and microwave ovens to significantly reduce cooking time.

Reduce Energy Costs While Doing the Laundry
About 80-85% of the energy used for washing clothes goes toward heating the water. You can reduce this cost by washing full loads, which results in using less water overall. Also use cooler water -- switching the temperature setting from hot to warm cuts a load's energy use in half. Reduce drying costs by cleaning the lint filter after every load to improve air circulation. Don't overdry clothes, and use the cool-down cycle to allow clothes to finish drying with residual heat.

Use Window Coverings
Draperies and shades can help you keep your heating bills under control. Open the coverings on your south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to enter your home and close them at night to reduce the chilly air you may feel emanating from cold windows.

Save Money Without Sacrificing Comfort
You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating bills by simply turning down your thermostat 10% to 15% for 8 hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing an automatic setback or programmable thermostat. The latter allows you to adjust the times the heat goes on according to a pre-set schedule, saving energy and money while you're asleep or at work. Programmable thermostats can store and repeat multiple daily settings that you can manually override without affecting the rest of the schedule.

Be Fireplace Savvy
A fireplace is one of the most inefficient heat sources in your home -- a fire exhausts the air your heating system has warmed, sending it out through the chimney. But you can minimize your losses. Keep your damper closed when the fireplace is not in use, and if you never use your fireplace, plug and seal the chimney flue. When you do use the fireplace, reduce heat loss by opening dampers in the bottom of the firebox, if you have them, or open the nearest window slightly -- approximately one inch -- and close doors leading into the room. Lower the thermostat setting to between 50° and 55°F.

-- Additional reporting by Jennifer Hoche

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