For you and your family, maintaining the right temperature is very important. With global warming on the rise, it has become increasingly difficult to cool your home at an affordable price.
2. Checklist At Home
- Service your central air conditioning unit yearly, - Check the furnace or air conditioner filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment's life. - Install a programmable thermostat - Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc. - Air ducts need to be cleaned regularly - Turn lights off when you leave your home - Activate "sleep" features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity. - About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher. - Lower the temperature on your water heater. It should be set at warm, so that a thermometer held under running water reads no more than 120 degrees. -Only heat or cool the rooms you need close vents and doors of unused rooms
3. Home Cooling Systems
You can slash your energy bills by as much as forty percent simply by changing your furnace or central air unit. Seemingly these will work but in actually they are the most expensive to maintain..
4. Insulation Is The Key
The older homes should be carefully inspected by a profession. If you are going to remodel your house anyway, you should really consider installing a central air system. In particular, check your walls for the appropriate insulation and make sure windows are double paned.
5. Don't forget lighting
Incandescent light bulbs are very outdated now. Did you know that 95 percent of the energy a light bulb used goes to heating the bulb. This adds extra heat to your home in the summer. Replace your frequently light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and save each year. Compact fluorescent bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer.
Solar power is becoming much more widely available for the home consumer and as a consequence solar powered lights and solar powered features can be seen in many gardens and even in houses but often they have their limitations. Nevertheless solar power is still a viable energy source for your home and personal needs. There are grants available to have PV tiles fitted to your house as well as the grid tie systems that are associated with them. If you haven't already looked into solar power as an alternative to buying all your power from the grid then do a little research. Not only will you be doing your bit for the environment but will it might just save you money on your energy bills.
About PV tiles.
Photovoltaic tiles are solar tiles used to transform the heat from the sun into electrical power and are becoming much more popular all around the world to power homes as well as heat water, heat your house or to heat your pool. Governments are beginning to offer grants to interested households and they are doing this as part of their commitment to producing more energy from renewable sources.
Photovoltaic tiles are available that look almost identical to normal roof tiles and with the grants they aren't much dearer, if they're any dearer at all. Having PV tiles fitted means you can either use the heat collected to warm your house, warm your pool or even to create electricity to power your house.
Grid tie systems.
If you have PV tiles fitted you should also get a grid tie system. This means that you can actually sell your unused solar power back to the grid, meaning that in summer months you might not just save money but you could also be making a small profit. You only need a small amount of machinery attached to your tiles and virtually any loft has more than enough room to store the transformers and other equipment required.
Other renewable energy uses around your home.
As well as using PV tiles there are other factors. If you are really eco friendly there are small wind turbines available that will produce energy for your home but the present level of technology means that much of the initial energy created is wasted before it can be turned into a useful power source.
You can collect rainwater using rain butts and use it for watering your garden or for cleaning your house. While this doesn't create energy to power your house it will mean that little bit less stress on your local reservoir.
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