Knowing where to start saving energy can be overwhelming. Let Value Power's team of seasoned electricity experts help you start making your home more energy efficient.
As prices soar, saving money is more important than ever. It’s hard to know exactly where to start, but saving money can easily start at home. Whether looking for sustainable energy sources for your home or simply reducing your home’s electricity costs, Value Power’s energy-saving tips will help you save money.
Energy efficiency isn’t solely about adding new light bulbs and turning off lights when you’re not in the room. It’s a way to improve your home’s health, just like taking on vigorous exercise maintains your body’s health. Think of energy efficiency as reducing energy waste. Below are some ways that energy conservation is great for you.
Energy efficiency isn’t difficult to understand, but knowing where to start can be overwhelming. There are so many lists out there that don’t break down where to start for creating an energy-efficient home unless you are building one from scratch. Getting an energy efficiency audit is a great place to start.
An energy efficiency audit may sound like a foreign concept. However, it’s a great step forward to discovering the cost-effective measures you can take to improve your home’s energy efficiency.
You may be wondering what exactly an energy auditor does. They are specialists using specialized tools and skills to evaluate where your home can improve its comfort and efficiency. The assessment also examines your energy use by reviewing your past energy bills.
You can hire an energy auditor, or you can do it yourself. There are home energy monitors you can buy that track your house’s energy usage in real-time. These monitors send the information directly to an app on your smartphone. If you hire a professional, they do the same work as getting the free audit, but it costs you money, and the price varies from location to location.
Getting an energy audit is a great place to start if you are having a difficult time figuring out how to save energy or if you want concise actions to take to save on energy.
You can make your home more energy efficient, but saving money in the long run often costs more. The high cost of an energy-efficient home tends to turn people away from making the changes. Some home improvements are less costly than others to help you save for the major ones you may need.
Making sure your walls are insulated is a great place to start saving money and energy. Having well-insulated walls can slow how heat flows in and out during the summer and winter. So, if there is no insulation between the wall cavities, you are losing energy. One solution is blown-in insulation, which significantly improves the comfort level in your home. Contact a professional to figure out your wall’s best options.
Unfinished attics can suffer from the same problem as uninsulated walls. Adding insulation includes getting it added to the floors and rafters. Another attic improvement is installing an attic fan. This fan helps to remove the hot air from the attic and prevent it from spreading. Contact a professional to figure out the best options for your attic.
So much energy is lost through your home’s windows, whether they are poorly insulated or they have air leaks. Upgrading them helps give you energy-efficient windows. However, replacing your old, drafty windows is expensive upfront and energy- and money-saving in the long run. Another less costly option is adding weather stripping, storm windows, solar shades, tinting film, or sealing cracks around windows.
Doors are another way that you are quickly losing energy in your home. They, along with windows, are easy to check for air leaks. You can easily make improvements by adding weather stripping or sealing cracks around your doors. While these home improvements don’t sound costly, it may turn out that you may want or need to get a new door altogether.
Landscaping for your home can be costly or inexpensive depending on your home’s needs to help make it more energy efficient. Lush trees around your windows help add shading to your home during the summer months, and the bare trees let the sun warm your house during the winter. Add native plants and flowers to your garden beds. Native plants are more energy efficient and better equipped for growing in your climate, so they should require less water overall. Talking with an expert at your local nursery will give you an idea about which plants would work best for you.
While often costlier than other home improvements, solar panels definitely have a higher return on investment for saving energy. They save you money and energy by converting the sun’s light into electricity, which is a clean and renewable energy source. Before going ahead and buying solar panels to be installed, check with your mortgage lender first to see how it will affect your mortgage.
Getting a dimmer switch doesn’t seem like a costly home improvement, but it can be. The switch itself is quite inexpensive, but the installation is more pricey. There are some dimmer switches that an app can control. However, dimmer switches help you save money by allowing you to adjust the brightness to suit your mood while reducing wattage and output to save electricity. You will need to get lightbulbs that work with dimmer switches.
An often under-considered part of your home is the air ducts. If your HVAC system isn’t working properly, you might be wondering why you’re still hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. It might not be working well due to holes, clogs, leaks, or old filters. Speak with a professional to figure out whether you need to replace your old HVAC system with a new energy-efficient one or if fixing holes, leaks, or cleaning clogs is enough to get your system back to good.
These aren’t the only home improvements you can make for a more energy-efficient home, but they are a good start. If you had an energy audit performed, it would help you pinpoint what improvements are necessary.
Not all changes to your home have to be costly, but some little changes can set you back. Many of the changes below are easy and convenient to make throughout the year. Not all energy-efficient upgrades need to be made all at once.
These little home upgrades can save you money in the long run on top of saving energy. Make the decision based on your energy audit or the little changes you can make without breaking the bank or by budgeting for the big-ticket items.
Not all changes you can make for an energy-efficient home have to cost anything for big savings. Making little changes in your daily routine can lead to sizable savings on your utility bills. You can break down some of these changes by the overall home, the kitchen, and the bathroom.
While these are not the only free changes you can make in your daily life, they are some of the most popular changes. Best of all, you may have already included some of these energy-efficient changes in your daily life! Another stress-free way to save money on your electric bill is by checking out Value Power's affordable pricing and plans.
At Value Power, we value high-quality customer service and promise to remain committed to your needs without gimmicks. We are a team of seasoned retail electricity experts who have been serving residential customers since the beginning of deregulation and Power To Choose in Texas almost 20 years ago. Let us help you understand more about making energy-saving switches in your home.
