Reducing Consumption
You don’t need to spend large amounts of money on installing solar panels or renovating your house structure. In fact, there are plenty of small decisions you can make on a daily basis to reduce your energy consumption and save money on your electric bills. Between carefully choosing which products you buy, intelligently managing your electronic use, and simply changing some of your habitual behaviors, you’ll notice a change in your impact on the environment, your wallet, and even in your health and wellbeing.
PRODUCT CHOICES
When shopping for appliances and household items, we’re often bombarded by an extensive array of choices. If you’re interested in saving energy and minimizing your carbon footprint, you can choose products that are more energy efficient, which can also help cut costs on your electric bill.
Energy Star
One of the most popular energy efficiency certifications to look for is Energy Star. You can find Energy Star labels on computers, televisions, heating and cooling systems, lighting, and much more. The program tests an international standard developed by the U.S. EPA, and indicates that products use 20-30% less energy than typical. This means the product will have a smaller impact on your electric bill. If you’re in the market for a new TV or any other item that uses electricity, keep an eye out for the Energy Star mark!
Lighting
The type of lights your house uses has one of the most significant impacts on energy consumption. Traditional incandescent bulbs are no longer manufactured because of their poor energy efficiency, and now there are plenty of options for far more efficient bulbs.
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Halogen incandescents - 25% more efficient than traditional incandescents
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Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) - 75% more efficient than traditional incandescents
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Light emitting diodes (LEDs) - 75%+ more efficient than traditional incandescents
Due to these lights being more efficient, they also last much longer than their traditional counterparts. Both CFL's and LED's come in a variety of color and warmth. However, due to the mercury in CFL's, LED's tend to be a more environmentally friendly choice for lighting.
RESOURCE USAGE
In your day-to-day life, there are many ways to incorporate wiser choices into your routines which require little to no money and can drastically reduce your energy consumption.
Hot water
If you’re not going to be home for a while, it may be a good idea to turn off your water heater. Having hot water at the ready whenever you need it is a convenience with consequences for your wallet and the environment; in fact, heating water makes up 12% of the average household’s energy consumption. Having a timer which turns off your water heater during idle periods is a good way to ensure you aren’t wasting energy.
ALTERNATE BEHAVIORS
You can make even smaller, easier, and more creative changes to your lifestyle without having to buy any new products at all! These tips incorporate small practices that are more in alignment with mother nature, and may have positive impacts on your health, as well!
Appliance alternatives
Instead of using energy-hogging driers for your clothes, why not use a clothesline and hang them outside? You could even set one up inside next to a window.
Thermostat usage
Learn to build more of a tolerance to temperatures on the extreme ends of the spectrum. Set the thermostat to 78 F or higher in the summer, and 68 F or lower in the winter. If you get cold, grab a blanket. If you get hot, open some windows or wear fewer clothes!
Get outside!
Finally, when the weather allows for it, get outside as much as possible! This will allow you to leave your appliances off for longer periods of time, and will, of course, decrease your energy consumption. Our ancestors survived and thrived without the convenience of air conditioning and electricity for many years. Challenge yourself to detach from these modern technologies as much as possible, and use the resources nature has provided sustainably, rather than in excess!
Small Scale Energy Effiency Improvements
Turning off, unplugging, and Phantom Load
A simple and effective way of reducing your energy consumption is by making sure to turn your devices off when not in use. You’ll save even more energy if you unplug them completely. Many products still leech a certain amount of power when they’re plugged in, called “phantom load”. If you look on the tags of various appliances and devices, you can often find a figure indicating the number of Watts it uses when turned on, as well as when it’s off but still plugged in. As part of a project for an environmental course, I was able to reduce my energy consumption by around 25% simply by unplugging unused appliances.
One way to more easily “unplug” your products is to use power strips for clusters of items often used together. For example, you can plug your printer, desk lamp, laptop charger, monitor and other electronics used at your desk into a power strip to be able to easily turn your whole workstation on and off according to when you’re using it. For individual devices, you can also find affordable outlet switches in order to maximize your avoidance of phantom loads without having to fully unplug the cord.
Power strips and outlet switches