September 25, 2009
Using less energy at home
Now is the era of the “green home.” We need to do everything we can to reduce the amount of energy used by our houses. The best place to look is at our appliances and at our home insulation , particularly spray foam insulation . Let’s walk through the house to see in how many places we can save energy.
Our first stop is the kitchen. }There are a lot of|We can find many} places in the kitchen where energy can be saved. The overall rule to follow is to look for appliances with an Energy Star rating. The biggest energy hog in the kitchen is the refrigerator. If an old refrigerator is replaced with a new one, even if the new one is larger, in most cases, enough energy can be saved to make the purchase worthwhile. Another Energy Star appliance is the dishwasher. In the early days of dishwashers, they used way too much energy. In your mind’s eye can you see your grandmother always rinsing the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher? Mine just about washed all the dishes before loading her dishwasher! Modern dishwashers all have a small garbage disposer in the bottom that will dispose of any soft food that may be clinging to the dishes. No need to rinse. And it is now easy to eliminate any heated drying time.
In the living room, there are a couple of ways to save energy. The easiest is to switch the incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use much less energy, although they must be recycled properly rather than just tossed in the trash because they contain mercury. You must beware of potentially wasted energy in the living room. Manufacturers of televisions, DVD players, and digital converter boxes are not concerned about your energy use. Every one of these appliances keep using energy when you turn them “off.” Notice that most of these appliances have a glowing red light when they are off. And that is not all of the energy they are leaking In addition, if cell phone chargers remain plugged in when they are not charging your phones, they consume just as much electricity as they do when they are in operation. Now you can purchase a device into which you can plug these appliances. When this device is turned off, it stops electricity from being wasted. It even has a remote control to turn it off and on so that you can use the appliances.
The basement is another place where energy can be saved. The newer front-loading clothes washers allow you to wash very large loads of laundry with very little water. If you wash in cold water with a detergent designed for use with cold water, your clothes will come out just as clean. For drying, clothes dryers now meet the Energy Star standards. Even though you wash your clothes in cold water, you still need water for many purposes in the house. The best solution for hot water production is to install an on-demand hot water heater. These can be purchased for both gas and electricity; however, the ones made for electricity are very expensive. So if your neighborhood has a gas line, you may want to look at an on-demand water heater.