The need to help the environment is at an all time high as the world is faced with global warming, worldwide floods, and a nasty global haze encircling the planet. Stopping the power plants that are generating tons of toxic pollutants every day is the real solution, but since that won’t be done in the near future, there are several ways you can help reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses produced.
Saving energy at home is something you can do on your own to actually make a difference. Sacrifice is one of the most common terms in the household, whether it be cutting back on luxuries or trimming back some of the other needs in life, but by trimming your electricity bill as much as you can, your efforts will reduce the demand on electricity production.
Awareness is the other secret to the pollution problem created by power plants. Once you trim back your power use around the house, spread the word and get all of your friends and family on board your environmental bus.
Here are 5 easy steps to trim back power use in your home in order to help the environment:
Step 1: Turn Off Unnecessary Lighting. Turning off the lights when they are not in use can help in saving energy at home. Also, switching your standard light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs helps reduce your electric usage by a at least ten percent.
Another way to automate the lighting within your home is by having motion sensors in various rooms to automatically turn the lights on and off when a room is occupied.
Step 2. Set Your Air Conditioner Thermostat to One Temperature and Leave it. Reducing power use at home is directly related to the time your air conditioner runs throughout the day. One way to really contribute to help the environment is to carefully manage your AC and heat use.
AC and heat systems in your home are the highest energy consumers. One way to lower your monthly energy use is to set the household air conditioner thermostat to a nominal level less than 20 degrees below the actual outside temperature and leave it.
If the air temperature outside is greater than 90 degrees, you must be careful where you set your thermostat, otherwise your AC unit will run continuously. If your AC unit tends to never stop running, try raising the temperature on the thermostat until it stops, then leave it. A programmable thermostat is a great way to automatically manage your AC unit’s run time.
Another way you can reduce your AC Unit energy usage is by turning it completely off while you are out of the house or during the evening and night while you are sleeping. This entire step is the same for your heater during the winter months.
Step 3. Remove Power From Unused Appliances. Helping the environment can be done by simply unplugging all appliances and electrical devices that aren’t used every day or that are only used at random each day. Examples of these types of appliances (most of which have digital clocks on them running 24 hours a day) are the microwaves, coffee makers, cable boxes, televisions, VCR’s, computers and their monitors in sleep mode, stereo systems, or other electronic devices.
Simply unplug all of the appliances and electronic devices you are not using and you can easily cut down on power consumption.
Step 4. Reduce the Heat Setting of Your Hot Water Heater. Water heaters are insulated tanks that maintain water temperature within the tank. The average use of a water heater set between 120 and 140 degrees is 111 kilowatt-hours per month.
One way of saving energy at home is to set your water heater temperature thermostat between 100 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This will prevent the water heater from having to work as hard and can significantly reduce your electricity use.
Step 5. Minimize Machine Drying Your Clothes. Dryers use higher power use while running in order to heat the element inside them that heats the air enough to dry your clothes. The best solution for saving energy at home to help the environment in this case is to get a clothes line and hang dry your clothes instead of using an electric tumble dryer. This will eliminate a lot of power use from your overall energy consumption.
By simply implementing the above steps and saving energy at home, you will personally help the environment by using less electricity. If you use less electricity, the power company will not have to make as much electricity.
Use common sense when it comes to helping the environment at home. It all starts with the electricity you use to make your life easier. Making small sacrifices here and there will benefit you in the long run. Learn more about how you can change your everyday habits around your home and help the environment, then tell your family and friends to do the same so we can all make the world a better place for many years to come.
