What Improvements Can You Do At Home To Reduce Energy Consumption?

There are many ways to save energy at home to both save your money and contribute to environmental protection.

And the truth is, many of them have reduced the energy consumed without requiring any financial investments. Start with these improvements you can do at home to reduce energy consumption!

Turn Off The Light

A simple way to reduce energy consumption is to turn off the lights every time you leave the room.

The amount of saved energy is varied, depending on the type of bulbs you use. For example, incandescent light is estimated to consume more than 90% of the energy in converting to heat and only the remaining 10% is for lighting.

Compact fluorescent lights (CFL), on the contrary, are also known as energy- and money-saving bulbs. These LED bulbs, by applied with new technologies, also increases the lighting ability, making them more efficient to use.

Energy experts recommend turning off lights when you're about to go out for 15 minutes or more.

Switch To Energy-Efficient Devices

As a rule, electrical appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and light bulbs must be energy labeled.

This label provides information about the device's energy consumption. When buying, consumers can rely on this to know how energy-efficient the product is. The most popular energy label is Energy Star.

Technologies also play a huge role in reducing the energy consumption of a device.

Go for those products applied with inverter technology since they can save up to 50% of the electricity consumption than conventional ones.

Last but not least, choose products with the right capacity for your home use.

Unplug When You Don’t Use Electric Devices

If your home has a lot of electrical appliances, consider installing a circuit breaker for your private electricity network so you can turn it off when not in use to save energy costs.

Unplug the battery chargers when your device is fully charged.

Do not forget to select "Standby" or "Sleep" mode on the computer screen when temporarily not in use.

Improvements To Reduce Energy During Winter

Add A Thick Rug Or Carpet

Carpeting is not only a nice accent of the room but also helps keep your feet warm on winter days. Place a carpet or thick rug on a wooden, brick floor will also help avoid losing about 10% of the indoor heat.

Seal Cracks And Crevices On The Wall

The existence of cracks and crevices on a wall in an average room size will lose the same amount of heat as when you open a window 3’-5’ wide throughout the day. They can account for 15-25% of the heat loss.

Aside from sealing those visual gaps, cracks, and crevices on the door and walls, don't forget to check:

• Those areas like pipes or cables
• Places behind washing machine
• Under kitchen cabinets
• Around sinks and toilets
• You can seal it with tape, newspaper, plastic bags, or old socks.

Improvements To Reduce Energy In Your Kitchen

Use Glass Cookware

Because glass is an insulator rather than a conductor, cooking in those pots and pans made of this material is faster than in a metal one.

Once hot, it retains the heat a lot longer and your foods will absorb the heat faster to be cooked more quickly, according to the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Consider The Right Place For Your Refrigerator

You need to avoid placing your refrigerator near those places that emit heat, such as electric stoves, gas stoves, and microwaves. Otherwise, it will have to consume more energy to operate.

The magnetic field emitted from a refrigerator is quite strong, especially in large-capacity side-by-side refrigerators.

From that point, you should place it far from other electronic devices, such as TVs, speakers, amps, karaoke systems in the living room.

Make sure to keep the surrounding space ventilated. Always put the back of the refrigerator at least 5” away from the wall to avoid heat loss. This will also help it operate stably and last longer.

Do Not Store Hot Foods In Your Refrigerator

After a meal, if there’s any leftover, you should let them cool down before storing them in your refrigerator or freezer.

The reason is when putting hot foods in a fridge, they will release heat, causing the internal temperature to rise. This forces it to immediately start the motor to cool down, which consumes more energy and reduces the refrigerator lifespan.

In addition, the heat of these foods might be transmitted through containers such as compartments, boxes, and pots, leading to the deformation of the tray in the device.

Thaw Before Cooking

You should let frozen foods thaw by placing them in a Ziploc bag, vacuuming, and soaking in cool water for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking them, according to USDA.

This saves you lots of cooking time and energy, and you won't have to spend extra heat to turn them from cold to hot.

Note: Do not place frozen foods at room temperature.

According to Julie Harrington, a nutritionist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, if doing this, once the ice melts, it changes the temperature of your foods, which encourages bacteria (like staph, salmonella, E. coli, and campylobacter) to invalid and thrive.

Adjust The Heat Properly When Cooking

It’s not true that the higher the heat setting, the shorter the cooking time. In some cases, it results in some adverse effects, such as burnt foods.

To save energy, it’s essential to adjust the heat properly depending on the dishes.

Conclusion

Equipping yourself with more experience with improvements you can do at home to reduce energy consumption is never wasteful. Hopefully, the article helps you learn some more tips! If there are any other interesting tricks, please share them with us!

Thanks for reading.