Tips to Improve Energy Conservation at Home

The kitchen is often the most-used room in a home and becomes a gathering place for all family members. It is not surprising that the kitchen is also often the greatest point of energy waste in any home.

Three different examples show just how we can improve our energy use in this area.

In the case of many major appliances, it may be worth retiring them early. The new appliances of today use as much as fifty percent less energy to function—and often function far better than their older counterparts.

Appliances bearing the “Energy Star” can reduce energy use by an additional twenty to forty percent. These products do begin to pay for themselves almost instantly with substantial decreases in operating costs. By eliminating old appliances and replacing them with newer energy-efficient alternatives, one can conserve a great deal of energy.

Many of us will pre-heat an oven to the desired temperature for use and will then fail to put the food in the oven for some time. We may have simply made an error in timing our preparation or we may have just turned the oven on earlier than we needed to. In any case, that little kitchen furnace in which we cook is burning energy every second.

As in any other room, kitchen lights should (of course) be turned off when no one needs them. And, speaking of lights, the kitchen can make use of energy conserving compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of the electricity-sucking incandescent bulbs we too often use.

A similar example is our overuse of climate control devices including heaters and air conditioners. We have all been told repeatedly that we can make a positive contribution to conservation simply by changing our thermostat’s temperature a few degrees. By being willing to cut back on two degrees of heat in the winter or two degrees of cooling in the summer, we can post huge conservation gains without even noticing a significant difference in our comfort levels.

Another example of this problem is our continued use of power during peak periods. We hear warnings every year that we should try to run our optional heavy appliances during those hours when the overall energy draw is lower. Evenings and early mornings are a great time to use energy outside of the peak periods. We have been instructed of the value of doing this and understand that we should save tasks like laundry for non-peak periods. .

Saving a few cents per day on electricity doesn’t seem like a big thing to us. Cutting our power use just a little bit can be an effective way to attack the global energy crisis.

All of us should reflect on this and note that the cumulative impact of many people making small changes can be great. We know we should conserve energy. Now, after reflecting on that knowledge and reminding ourselves how we can be less wasteful, it is time to do it.