At Griffith Energy Services, we’re dedicated to helping our friends and neighbors lower their energy usage without sacrificing comfort. There are plenty of ways to make your home as efficient as possible, and thanks to our extensive experience in the HVAC industry, we know exactly how to save energy at home. Investing in energy efficiency now will bring huge dividends for your family for years to come.
Reasons to Cut Energy Use
Reducing energy consumption has three major benefits for any home:
- Utility Costs: Electricity isn’t free. Heating oil and natural gas aren’t free. The less energy your home heating and cooling systems use, the less money you’ll spend every month on those utilities. Upgrading to more efficient systems can also help you qualify for tax credits and utility rebates, saving even more.
- Environmental Effects: Energy conservation helps the environment as well as your budget. The less fuel and electricity your home uses, the smaller your home’s carbon footprint.
- Wear and Tear: There’s a third, hidden cost that comes with inefficient cooling. If your home is losing heating or cooling power to leaks, your heating and cooling systems will have to work harder to make up the deficit. Over time, that leads to increased damage that can reduce the lifespan of your HVAC equipment.
It’s clear that reducing your home’s energy consumption is a terrific goal. Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve that goal, and most aren’t hard to implement.
How to Save Energy at Home
Any homeowner can take these steps to reduce energy usage. Some cost nothing at all! Even when you do have to pay up front to cut your energy usage, the long-term savings usually more than offset that cost.
- Complementary Systems: Ceiling fans help your air conditioners run more efficiently by breaking up the hot air that tends to collect near the ceiling. Invest in an Energy Star rated fan to maximize energy conservation, and look for a reverse setting that can help you save during the heating season as well.
- Thermostat Settings: Every degree of difference on your thermostat changes your air conditioner’s energy usage by about 7 percent, so it’s in your interest to set it as high as you can comfortably stand. For most people, that’s between 76 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Daily Adjustments: There’s no need to keep your air conditioner running at full blast while the house is empty. Turn it down when you leave and back up when you get home. A programmable thermostat can take all the work out of those daily adjustments with pre-set temperatures for each day.
- Zoned Control: Are you wasting money cooling an unused room? Upgrade your AC to support zoned control, and you can lower your energy usage by cutting off cooling where it isn’t needed. Zoning also allows you to direct more power to that room that’s always too hot.
- Preventative Maintenance: Good home maintenance steps, such as changing air filters every one to three months, can help your HVAC systems run more efficiently. For even greater savings, invest in an annual service agreement. Our technicians will make calibration adjustments to ensure that your heating and cooling systems run at peak efficiency.
- Insulation: Weather stripping your doors, insulating your walls and investing in double-paned windows can stop heat from leaking into or out of the house, saving money throughout the year.
- Duct Sealing: Forced-air systems often lose 20 to 30 percent of their heating or cooling power to leaks in the ducts. Having your duct system professionally sealed will stop that energy loss, reducing energy usage.
- System Upgrades: If your heating and cooling systems are more than a few years old, you can probably save plenty by investing in a newer, more efficient system. The upgrade process also gives us a chance to do a load calculation and confirm that the new system is properly sized for your home.
At Griffith Energy Services, we have extensive experience helping Westminster, MD, homeowners reduce their energy usage throughout the year, and we’re always happy to bring that expertise to our friends and neighbors. Contact us to learn more about ways to make your home more efficient, lower your carbon footprint and save money.
Written by Kevin Spain
