No matter your job, hobbies, or walk of life, chances are you’d welcome ways to save on your monthly energy bills; especially during the summer months. This is the season when it feels like blasting the air conditioner around the clock is a life-sustaining necessity.
What are the appliances that use the most amount of energy and is there anything you can do to decrease their consumption?
The 4 Home Appliances That Use the Most Energy
The big ticket items aren’t really a surprise. However, even when you expect certain items to be an energy vacuum, it can still be surprising to find out how much power can also be wasted by them.
1. Air Conditioners
Heating and cooling are the big kahunas of energy consumption. Granted, its energy usage depends substantially on the system’s geographical location. Being in Florida, you can pretty much guarantee one of the highest averages in the country. That being said, if you suspect your energy bills are consistently higher than they should be – an oversized AC unit could be to blame. AC units that are not the correct size for your home are unable to cool your home efficiently. This inefficiency drives up energy costs and compromises your comfort.
2. Water Heaters
The more people in your house, the more energy this appliance uses. Hot showers, laundry loads, and more frequent dishwasher use will drive up that bill in a hot minute.
3. Washers and Dryers
Just as with the water heater, running many loads of laundry wastes a substantial amount of hot water. Granted, you can’t choose not to do laundry, but you can skip doing small loads and wait until you have enough clothes to wash together or stop using hot water for all your loads.
4. Lighting
Raise your hand if you leave lights on around the house when you don’t need them. Now multiply the times you do that by the number of people in your family. Make it a habit to shut off lights when you leave a room. It’s good for your pocket and for the environment.
8 Ways to Lower Your Energy Bill
1. Conduct a home energy audit
Doing an energy audit is a surefire way to find out whether there’s anything you can do around the house to make it more energy-efficient, such as sealing leaky windows, installing additional insulation, and inspecting air vents, furnaces, and air filters. You can do it on your own, or you could have a professional do it for you.
2. Do laundry with cold water
Washing clothes in cold water is beneficial for several reasons: It can lower your energy bill, it makes clothes last longer, and it’s better for the environment. It’ll work just as well as hot water to remove stains, and it still stimulates enzymes in laundry detergent to get everything clean.
3. Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs
At face value, they’re more expensive, but they also last a lot longer than traditional bulbs (30,000 hours vs. 1,000 hours, on average) and lower your energy bill. So really, keeping the old lightbulbs around costs you more money in the long run. They also don’t burn out. Once they’re nearing the end of their lifespan, they’ll start losing brightness gradually, so you won’t end up with a dark room at an inconvenient time.
4. Install a programmable thermostat
Unless you have a home office that you use on a regular basis, chances are that your house is empty for most of the day. Installing a programmable thermostat allows you to preset the temperature to be at its most comfortable only when you are home, without keeping track of temperature changes every time you go in and out.
5. Install a ceiling fan
Installing a ceiling fan will allow you to raise the thermostat’s temperature while still keeping you comfortable. You’ll see changes in your energy bills by only raising the temperature by four degrees, yet a ceiling fan will ensure that you won’t even notice the difference.
6. Close the shades
Keep the curtains or shutters closed in rooms that don’t need them to be open. This will help to prevent a greenhouse effect, by helping to keep the heat out. Also, you won’t be tempted to lower the AC to cool down the place, because you won’t need to.
7. Install a UV light in your HVAC system
You may have heard that installing a UV light for your HVAC system can offer great benefits, like improved indoor air quality and mold prevention. But did you know that UV lights can also help improve the energy efficiency of your HVAC system, which will help lower your energy bill? This is because UV lights kill germs and other contaminants that could otherwise obstruct the airflow. Improved airflow increases efficiency and decreases the risk of potential AC malfunction.
8. Schedule HVAC maintenance
While there are general suggestions designed to help people across the board, scheduling HVAC maintenance twice a year (preferably every spring and fall) will ensure that you have a skilled technician verifying whether there are any issues that could be nipped in the bud to prevent more expensive repairs or an inefficient system.
If you have any HVAC issues in Central Florida, we can help.
At Complete Air Mechanical, we have experienced HVAC professionals who can ensure energy efficiency for your home or business. We provide services in Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia counties, and we offer financing options.
Call us today at (407) 915-0144 or schedule an appointment online.