How To Conserve Electricity In The House | Saving Electricity For Beginners
Saturday
People are increasingly looking for how to conserve electricity in the house, saving electricity being one key means to reduce energy costs. It's a pretty safe bet that all of us have experienced firsthand the rising costs of different forms of energy and the volatility over the past few years. Lately, I read more and more that electricity rates are still increasing, putting more emphasis on ways to conserve electricity or energy as a whole.
In economically hard (or good) times, the effects of this rise in energy related costs are placing an even greater burden on families. With this in mind, the importance of conserving electricity in the house, and taking steps to reduce energy costs is becoming more of a on-going concern to many of us at home.
As a result, discovering tips or ways to save electricity and essentially save money on electricity is increasingly on people's minds. This is not just because it makes sense to consume less energy where possible. It's also about how to reduce energy costs which leads to saving real money for families - the positive effects of conserving electricity or energy conservation in general for that matter.
The open question is how to save electricity in your home?
Perhaps the best approach to get started with conserving electricity in your house or saving energy overall is to reflect on how much you are consuming on an annual basis. This will help to put your energy consumption into perspective and potential for saving energy via various energy conservation initiatives.
The average US family spends somewhere around $1,900 annually on utilities in the home. This represents a considerable expense for a family. We can break this down in the following categories for a somewhat more clearer picture of where we are spending:
Heating : 31%
Cooling : 12%
Water Heating : 12%
Lighting : 12%
Computers and Electronics : 9%
Appliances : 9%
Refrigeration : 8%
Other : 8%
Now, the general consensus is that a considerable amount of these energy costs are wasted or could be avoided. So, just how much can you reduce energy costs and save on electricity for example? There is no single answer since each of our situations is different in terms of our behaviors, home, usage and therefore the potential waste or opportunity to scale back.
The good news is that there are many ways to conserve energy or save electricity at home which are available to us. I do not see it as a major challenge for each of us to find multiple options that we can apply in order to trim unnecessary energy use and associated costs.
So, how do I go about conserving electricity in the house?
My experiences suggest that you first need to be aware of behaviors of people. The best way to sum this up is to adopt an approach whereby you and other members of the household begin to manage the energy or electricity used in your house. It's about underlining the importance of conserving electricity in the house.
How does one start to manage (conserve) their energy or electricity usage in the house?
In my opinion you first need to be aware of both how and where you are consuming energy or electricity. The board categories mentioned above are the main areas to consider and will likely provide you ideas on the many ways to conserve energy. This also helps others to get involved in determining how to save electricity or energy for example.
Once this is understood you can start evaluating more closely your energy or electricity use. This will lead to identifying appropriate actions whereby you can better control and start to manage (= conserve electricity in the house). The goal here is to map out multiple energy saving options that you an pursue in the future.
These actions can be grouped into the following categories:
No Cost
Low Cost
Long Term Investments
Once you have come up with various ways to conserve energy or tips for conserving electricity in your house (using the above categories for example), you then will need to plan out how and when you will introduce them. My suggestion is to list some easy energy saving actions that can be performed quite quickly, saving the more important ones perhaps requiring more work or investment.
All this may sound like a difficult or lengthy task; however it is fairly simple (and should be kept simple as well).
There is one final concept I would like to introduce which is important in reaching your goals of saving electricity in the house. I will develop this further in other articles on the site but it deserves to be mentioned at this time.
Your household energy consumption can be seen in some cases as a large system with many interdependent parts that work together. It’s quite important to look at this in the very broad sense, since the overall system includes smaller systems and components.
To expand on this point further, let’s take your heating system (more complex example). It begins with a furnace, is perhaps fueled by gas, generates warm air which is circulated through-out your home via ducts and is regulated based on a thermostat with your desired temperature.
So, shall we name a way that you can conserve electricity?
OK, one step towards your journey in discovering ways to conserve electricity could be to ensure you have a highly efficient system for generating and delivering heat within your home. Before we said that the average house spends approximately 45% of energy costs on heating and cooling, quite significant. This is probably one of the first areas you may want to look at. I suggest consider using a programmable thermostat (manage that 45%), installing a smart power strip and energy saving light bulbs for saving electricity, just to name a few.
You may also want to take a look at some background and history of electricity, the electricity timeline, when electricity was discovered, who and how electricity was invented. Looking back on the key discoveries or milestones and where we are today may shed some light towards the future and where we should be focusing our energy conservation efforts.
I hope you found this article useful in mapping out an initial framework or mindset. More information is available to support you in your journey in conserving electricity in the house, goal being save money on electricity by reduced energy costs. There are many ways to conserve electricity, start with the mindset, get people committed and then take some precise actions towards more energy conservation.
