Insider Secrets To Saving Electricity in Summer and Winter

Be smart about how you use your programmable thermostat. During warm weather, set your thermostat as high as possible, given health and comfort considerations and drink plenty of fluids. Turn thermostats to78 degrees when at home; 85 degrees when away. Use fans to circulate cool air. During winter, do exactly the opposite.

Close your drapes or shades. Windows are one of the largest sources of heat gain in your home. Keeping your drapes and shades closed during the day helps keep unwanted heat out of your home.

Ventilate when it's cool outside. Cut your cooling costs by opening windows when it's cooler outside than inside. In the morning, close up the house to trap the coolness inside.

Use ceiling fans wisely. Ceiling fans create enough air movement in a room to make it feel cooler by four degrees or more. They use only about as much energy as a 100-watt light bulb. Since you will feel cooler, make sure that you turn up your thermostat to 80 degrees or higher to save on your energy costs.

Eliminate wasted energy. Turn off lights in unoccupied rooms.

Use appliances efficiently. Do only full loads when using your dishwasher and clothes washer. Run your appliances during off peak hours or after the sun goes down. Be sure to clean your clothes dryer's lint trap after each use. Use the moisture-sensing automatic drying setting on your dryer if you have one. When replacing these appliances, buy Energy Star products. They save up to 30 percent over standard models.

Plug “leaking energy” in electronics. Many new TVs, VCRs, chargers, computer peripherals and other electronics use electricity even when they are switched “off.” Although these “standby losses” are only a few watts each, they add up to over 50 watts in a typical home that is consumed all the time. Current Energy sells special power strips that allow you to turn off these devices while enabling certain items to stay on (like TiVo's).

If possible, unplug electronic devices and chargers that have a block-shaped transformer on the plug when they are not in use. For computer scanners, printers and other devices that are plugged into a power strip, simply switch off the power strip after shutting down you computer. The best way to minimize these losses of electricity is to purchase Energy Star® products.

Inexpensive Energy Solutions

Use your programmable thermostat. Set your programmable thermostat to 85 degrees when you are away during the day, and 80 degrees when you are home. Don’t forget to turn the system off when you leave for the weekend. Using a ceiling fan in conjunction with your air conditioning system allows you to set your thermostat at a higher temperature but still feel cooler. For example, setting your thermostat to 80 degrees and using a ceiling fan makes the room up to 5% cooler. Since t costs less to run the ceiling fan than the air conditioner you'll be saving money.

Only Heat & Cool rooms you actually use. Close the air conditioning register dampers (or partially restrict the airflow) in rooms you rarely use. You can even close registers to rooms you don't want to heat and cool at night and you will save even more.

Replace your air conditioning filters once a month. Dirty filters restrict airflow and can cause the coil in your air conditioner to freeze up significantly increasing energy use. Saving up to 5% of cooling costs.

Install compact fluorescent lights. Replace incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star® compact fluorescent light bulbs, Compact fluorescent lights use 75% less energy than incandescent lights and put off less heat. Remember, NEVER USE compact fluorescent light bulbs on a dimmer switch unless you have purchased dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs.