According to every single article I found when I googled “how to reduce energy consumption at home”, one of the “easiest” ways to reduce energy consumption is to replace all your appliances with energy efficient appliances…
Now, I don’t know about you, but replacing any major appliances before they actually need replacing is out of my budget. I don’t just have $10,000 lying around to buy a new fridge, dishwasher, oven, etc. when the ones I currently have work just fine. Also…isn’t replacing something before you actually need to just creating more waste? But I digress since we’re talking about energy this week and not household waste.
So why do we need to conserve energy? How can reducing energy consumption help save the planet?
When I was little, I always thought electricity was just this magical, unlimited thing that we somehow found a way to harness into wires. Believe it or not, that’s actually not true.
The energy in your home most likely comes from power plants, and power plants more often than not use fossil fuels to produce the energy that goes to your home. Now, we could go down a pretty lengthy road here of all the negative downstream effects of relying on fossil fuels, but I’ll just leave you with this:
One we’ve exhausted all the fossil fuels available to us in our own backyards, where do you think we will be going to get it next?
(Hint: It’s freezing cold there and melting due to global warming…which is also partly caused by carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.)
Our energy consumption has a pretty huge impact on the environment, but reducing that consumption actually comes with an extra bonus: it can save you money! Reducing energy consumption can save you money on your gas bill, electric bill, heating bill, water bill…the savings are (relatively) endless! Saving money and the planet??? Who wouldn’t want that???
17 Easy Ways to Reduce Energy Consumption at Home
- Turn the faucet off while scrubbing your hands, shaving, brushing your teeth, etc.
- Hang dry your clothes instead of putting them in the dryer.
- Turn your heater down a couple degrees and opt for a sweatshirt instead.
- Opt for open windows and a natural breeze in the summer instead of running your AC 24/7 during the summer.
- Replace your light bulbs with LED or CFLs. They’re more expensive, but they last significantly longer!
- Weather-proof your windows with things like weather stripping and caulk if you live in a cold region. This will help keep your heat bill down!
- Turn off the lights as soon as you leave a room.
- Try to rely on natural light during the day time.
- Unplug electronics when not in use. Even if they’re off, they’re still using a bit of what is known as “phantom” or “vampire” energy.
- Only run your dishwasher if it is full. If you don’t have enough dirty dishes to fill it, wash them by hand.
- Replace air filters in your furnace. When they’re full or dirty, your furnace needs to work twice as hard to get the air through.
- Wash your clothes in cold water.
- Put a dry towel in your dryer. I just learned about this one and haven’t tried it yet, but supposedly it can drastically decrease the amount of time it takes your clothes to dry and therefore decrease the amount of energy used.
- Keep your refrigerator full. Seems counterintuitive, but they actually run more efficiently that way (though not too full!)
- If it’s yellow, let it mellow. (You don’t really need to flush your toilet every single time…)
- If you blowdry your hair every day, start letting it partially air dry first.
- Put the lid on the pot when boiling water. You’ll save energy and it will boil faster!