Simple Ways To Improve Your Home’s Energy Efficiency and Save Money
Many homeowners are feeling the pinch of rising energy costs. With electricity prices reaching all-time highs in some places, there has never been a better time to save money by improving your home and/or business’s energy efficiency. Many new techniques for improving one’s energy efficiency have become available recently that were never available before. In addition to amazing new technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency, a lot of research has come out recently about simple and low cost methods a person can do with little effort or cost.
Great strides have been made in the field of improved energy efficiency. Many household appliances are not efficient, they waste some of the electricity they draw and the homeowner ends up paying for the wasted energy. Technological advances have given rise to electricity recycling devices such as the KVAR 1200. Devices like the KVAR 1200 can reduce energy costs by capturing the energy that is otherwise wasted and recycling it back into household appliances. The KVAR 1200 is proven to reduce monthly electricity bills by as much as 25%!
Energy efficient appliances can make a big difference in energy efficiency. It is not feasible for most people to replace every appliance they have at the same time with more efficient ones, however. A practical approach to this is to be certain to spend a little bit extra to get energy efficient new appliances as your old ones need to be replaced. This way it is not as costly to get old, inefficient appliances replaced.
Another great way to improve energy efficiency of a home or business is to make sure the building is properly insulated. Poorly insulated buildings cause them to feel cold in the winter and hot in the summer prompting occupants to waste money blasting their heater or air conditioner. Well insulated homes save owners hundreds of dollars by reducing the need to run heaters and air conditioners.
For those in older buildings, energy efficiency can be significantly improved by replacing old windows with newer windows. The difference in the insulation effect between old windows and new ones is night and day. Owners will notice immediate savings on energy bills by replacing old windows. As an added benefit, there are often tax breaks from the federal and state governments available to owners who upgrade to energy efficient windows.
It is surprising for many when they learn how much energy is wasted by chargers for our devices like cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. The US Department of Energy recently revealed that nearly all of the energy people try to save by improving their homes is negated by leaving chargers plugged in when not in use. It is a simple and free way to significantly improve the energy efficiency of a building by unplugging chargers when not in use.
One should always remember the basics when working to improve the efficiency of a home or business. Remember to turn off lights when no one is in a room, turn down the temperature of hot water heaters, and making an effort to keep doors and windows closed. When a person combines basic things they can do themselves with recent technological advances like energy efficient windows, appliances and electricity recycle devices like the KVAR 1200, it is quite surprising how much energy efficiency can be improved.
