Tag Archives: home electrical

Winter Energy Saving

10 Ways To Save On Energy In Your Home This Winter

Electrical Saving, Home Electrical, , ,

Save on Energy This Winter

Here in middle Tennessee, we’re lucky to have mild winters, without the bitter temperatures you find up north.

It still gets cold here, though, and with fall in full swing, now’s the time to think about prepping your home or apartment for winter. Simple fixes can help you save big on your energy bill in the cold months. Here are our top 10 tips:

1. Weather strips your doors and windows.

We all know there are cracks around the doors and windows of our homes, but how big is too big? If you can slip a piece of paper through the crack, you are losing too much precious heat to the elements. Add weather stripping or door sweeps to keep that expensive hot air in your home.

2. Turn down the heat when you don’t need it.

Most families now spend a significant portion of the day out of the house. Turn down the thermostat when you’re not home to keep costs down. You can also turn down the temperature at night and add warmer sheets and blankets to your beds. Of course, getting up in the morning could be that much more difficult!

3. Use those fans!

Fans aren’t just for summer. Locate the small black switch on the side of your ceiling fan and give it a little flick. Fans that run clockwise push heat down, keeping it in the rooms instead of floating along the ceiling.

4. Only heat the main rooms.

Do you have guest rooms or hobby rooms you don’t use much? Close the vents and shut the doors to those rooms so that you can funnel heat to the rooms you use more often.

5. Consider a space heater.

Central heat and air isn’t the only way to go. Consider turning down your thermostat and using space heaters to heat the rooms you use the most. This can save you significant money, especially if certain rooms heat faster than others.

6. Plug in the humidifier.

Artificial heat makes the air in your home very dry. A humidifier will add moisture to the air, making it feel warmer than normal. Moist air will also keep your skin and sinuses from drying out, which will only make the winter that much more enjoyable.

7. Keep your furnace clean.

As always, basic maintenance will go a long way to increasing energy saving. Clean your furnace and check the filters regularly. Replace filters as necessary and make sure all the vents are unblocked to keep maximum heat flowing through your home.

8. Unplug

Leaky doors and windows aren’t the only energy thieves in your home. Year round, make sure you’re unplugging TVs, computers, and gaming systems when not in use. Even when electronics are off, they pull energy from the outlets, increasing your energy bill every month.

9. Wash in cold water.

If you don’t already, wash your clothes in cold water. Heating water takes a lot of energy, and washing your clothes in cold water will cut down on it significantly.

10. Use LED holiday lights.

LED lights use about 75% less energy and last 25% longer than traditional lights. They’re also less breakable and therefore safer than incandescent. Remember to unplug them when they aren’t in use!

daylight-savings

Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy?

Electrical Saving, Home Electrical, , , ,

If you felt like you were constantly running behind schedule this past Sunday, you’re not crazy, and you’re also not alone. This weekend, most of the United States observed Daylight Savings Time, which means setting clocks forward an hour to squeeze as much sunlight out of the waking day as possible. The goal is far more pragmatic than boosting society’s general happiness level with some extra UV exposure; otherwise a national undertaking (international if you count Europe’s analogous summer time change coming up), would not merit the effort involved in coordination and execution. Instead, the goal is, unsurprisingly, efficiency. Energy efficiency, that is. While there is debate about how much energy is actually saved, the general idea is to maximize the amount of time that people are awake and out of the house, so that as little energy is used indoors as is possible.

If you are wondering who came up with the brilliantly simple idea of adjusting human clocks to match that of the cosmos, it was possibly none other than the man who invented just about anything else you can think of- Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was unintentionally prescient in his snide remark that Parisians could reduce their energy expenditures in the evening hours if they were to begin their days before the sun was already at its zenith. Sadly, Americans cannot claim to have recognized or adopted the clever advice hidden in Franklin’s jab, though. It was Germany who first adopted Day Light Savings time in 1916, and a full fifty years passed before the US caught up to their efficient chronological manipulation.

The real question for those of us who might be loath to jump on board the new timetable is whether you prefer to lengthen your snooze or your budget. Rising earlier in the day does mean you are likely to head to bed before having to burn up as much midnight oil as someone who rises at noon, but an early start also means less time to recover from the previous night’s ventures. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, Schaffhouser Electric is there to fuel your home and energy needs at whatever time of day or night you decide to stir. There is no penalty for late-sleepers or night owls, and no change in service accompanying the change in time. In fact, Schaffhouser Electric might be able to give you the best of both worlds by providing you with energy-saving, efficient light fixtures and bulbs that reduce your bill without any change on your part at all.