13 Tips For Lowering Your Energy Consumption

Households spend a lot of energy. Various appliances your clients can’t live without use up more than they might think. For example, the dishwasher, purifier, washer and dryer, and several other pretty basic appliances can account for as many as 20% of the entire household’s energy use. And that’s a lot. Keeping a home well-lit, comfortable, and pleasant to be in has never been cheap, but it seems that it’s getting more expensive than ever. 

One of the solutions to this problem is for your clients to purchase solely ENERGY STAR certified appliances. While a great start and certainly a sound investment, opting for more energy-efficient appliances and electronics will only get your clients so far. There’s a lot they can do without running to the store and looking for the familiar badge on appliances. In fact, some of the tips for lowering their home’s energy consumption are not only easy, but also free. 

How Can My Customers Lower Their Energy Consumption?

So, methods for lowering energy consumption of a household without spending a dime or too much money? Tips that cost nothing or little and save a lot? It does sound too good to be true, but it actually isn’t. In fact, you should advise your customers to try out some or all of these techniques and see for themselves just how incredibly useful they can be: 

HVAC

Your client’s HVAC system is the single biggest culprit behind the high energy consumption of their household. That’s why this is the first place they should look to when trying to lower their bills and improve their consumption. Here’s what they can do: 

  • Advise your clients to check the seals on their appliances, doors, and windows to ensure they’re getting maximum performance from their HVAC system as well as their refrigerator and freezer. 
  • Fix any leaks they might have in their ductwork to ensure there’s no hot or cool air escaping where it shouldn’t be. 
  • Your clients should try lowering the temperature on their thermostat for ten to fifteen degrees when sleeping during the winter, or increase it for the same amount during the summer. 
  • Your customer should adjust the temperature of their freezer and refrigerator. Advise them to set theri freezer between zero and five degrees, and their refrigerator at 38. 

Water

Right behind the heating and air conditioning system is hot water. A lot of energy goes into heating water for everyday use and there are significant savings your customers can make here. Let’s see how: 

  • Your clients should take shorter showers and spend less hot water and water in general. 
  • Advise them to replace the showerhead they’re using for an efficient one and save approximately 2,700 gallons of water every year. 
  • Take the time or hire experts to fix leaky faucets around their home. 
  • Lower the temperature of washing their clothes. 
  • Adjust the temperature on their water heaters and set it to 120 degrees. 

Lighting & Power

Finally, the power and lighting also use up a lot of energy, roughly eleven percent of it. Here’s what your customers can attempt if they’re looking to cut back in this area as well: 

  • Swap their traditional light bulbs for LED ones and save almost $100 on a yearly basis. 
  • Install and use dimmers to reduce the amount of energy each bulb uses at each point in time. 
  • Try using smart power strips and plugging all appliances that don’t turn off completely but go into standby mode. This way, they won’t continue wasting energy when on standby since the smart strip will turn itself off when an appliance is not in use. 
  • Perform a general energy audit and detect the areas of improvement.