Low Impact Living: 10 Ways to Cut Home Energy Consumption
Editor’s note: Our friends at Low Impact Living point out 10 ways you can save energy this summer. This post was originally published on June 10th, 2008.
The heat of summer is coming, and that means many of us are about to crank up the AC, make an extra batch of ice, and generally burn energy like it’s our job. But we need all need to continue to try to conserve as much energy as possible to conserve resources and slow the march of global warming. And we get to save money at the same time–woo hoo to that!
Here are the ten things we can all do at home to cut our energy consumption. We start out nice and easy, then ramp up to some extra-credit methods at the end of the list for you Climate Crusaders.
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1. Resist the urge to live in a refrigerator.
78 degrees is plenty cool in the house. Turn down the AC and get a programmable thermostat so you’re only cooling the house when you really need to.
2. Air dry your dishes and clothes.
The dryer and dish washer use a lot of energy– and the air does the drying job just as well. See some great clothes-drying racks here.
3. Take shorter showers and do not take baths.
Hot water heating is one of the major uses of energy in any home. Showers are the way to go– and keep ‘em short. Baths use much more water and heat than do baths (unless you’re taking 30 minute showers!).
4. Make sure you have energy-efficient lighting throughout your home.
Everyone has heard about compact fluorescent lights by now– but are you up to date on LED lights? Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have come a long way, baby, and they are often 10 times more efficient than compact fluorescents.
5. Ditch the beer fridge.
It’s amazing how many homes have two refrigerators. Please do not use more than one fridge. And if you have an old model, get a newer Energy Star model.
6. Use ceiling fans rather than AC.
They are much more energy-efficient and you can get very reasonably priced Energy Star models.
7. Get solar screens for your windows.
These screens cut 75% of the heat coming through your windows, but don’t impact your visibility. They are really great energy savers. See them here.
8. Plant trees!
Placing deciduous trees on the South side of your home is a great way to block summer heat, but keep the sun shining on your home in the winter when you need the warmth.
9. Spend one night each week in candlelight.
It’s romantic, fun and inspires new conversation. If you’ve got kids, how about turning off the TV one night and playing a board game by candlelight? Clue would be particularly spooky!
10. Use a solar oven for some cooking.
They really work! You don’t want that hot oven on in your house anyway. You can either buy a solar oven, or you can learn to make one yourself. It’s another fun summer activity to do with your kids.
** #11: For the truly hard core, here’s a great tip I learned in Africa.
If you don’t have or don’t use AC, at night you can wet a scarf or towel or sheet and lay it on your chest. The evaporative cooling effect will really do the trick for you. Sleep tight!
Photo Credit: m.gifford’s photostream via Flicker, Under Creative Commons License
some of these things seem impractical in the short term, considering salary and location of living.
This is a great article, thanks for this awesome simple list. We found a site on this topic too:
http://www.50waystohelp.com/
I thought to share here
Ok number 5 has got to be taken off this list! That is a must.
Thanks for the amazing tips!
@ Jennifer Lance — You couldn’t be more right! I live in a house that doesn’t even have an AC or central air, and we learned to trap the cool air inside just like you said. Sadly after really hot days my boyfriend and I usually end up sleeping in the living room, because we have a really powerful fan that we put near our screen door to suck the cool air in. Closing the windows early in the morning makes a huge difference in the temperature of the house.
Even a modern refrigerator can be the third largest energy hog (behind air conditioners and water heaters). And the hotter the kitchen gets, the harder the fridge works. I suggest buying one of those “green style” refrigerators that come in 2 parts; the refrigerator/compressor, and the coil unit which can be buried in the earth outside your house. The heat from your refrigerator isn’t just pumped out into your hot kitchen; it is pumped to a cool place outside. This prevents the fridge from working too hard, and prevents your kitchen from getting even warmer. I’m told this system takes less than half the energy of a regular fridge.
I don’t have electricity so I don’t have a fridge, ac or washing machine
I lug water from a well 3 km away
I have an earthen pot to keep the water cool
I don’t use fossil fuels, only dry fallen wood that i collect from the forest
Am I trying to conserve energy?
No, I am so poor that I can’t afford any of the stuff you’ve talked about in your article.
Nearly 50% of the planet’s population is like me, or barely better.
Well you’re trying to conserve, we’re just trying to survive, and you know what, you won’t let even let us do that. You’re ruining our planet for us.
Great info! I already do most of your suggestions.
For those living in apartments or rentals, you can air dry your clothes on hangers and rolling racks. I do this year-round. The only thing I dry in the dryer are towels, sheets and jeans. Also, cold water cleans just as well as hot. And, you should use a bath towel one per week. Also, unless you get your clothing really dirty, you can wear most things more than once.
I have a question:
We are remodeling a 50’s ranch next year, what do you think about the tankless water heaters?
Thanks!
Kathryn, here’s my experience with the small Bosch model tankless water heater. They’re good in theory, but I found that you need a good flow of water through them to keep them turned on. My low-flow shower head didn’t draw enough water to keep the Bosch heater turned on, so my shower alternated between scalding and freezing as the heater alternated on/off every half minute. The Bosch has an adjustment for low-flow, which helped a little bit. I finally punched a hole in the shower head, rendering the low-flow feature useless. I get a nice warm shower but I’m using a lot of water do to it. So my solution ended up being a double-edged sword.
These are good tips. Unfortunately if it’s not cool (and 78 degrees doesn’t qualify), I can’t sleep a wink, regardless of season. And the midwest gets extremely muggy in the summer - so A/C, which I lived without for a long time - is damn rough to go without.
But luckily, they make programmable thermostats that can keep your place nice and cool while you’re home, and save the energy while you’re not. For people in apartments, simple things like plugging smaller appliances/computers into power strips and flipping the strip on and off can help keep your stuff from leaching electricity it doesn’t need. Keep your shades closed during the day when it’s warm to help keep some of the heat out if you can’t get solar screens.
Don’t worry, there’s plenty of things you can do when you don’t own your own home to keep your energy consumption down
Research indicates that a leading cause for energy wastage is that people have little or no understanding of the amount they spend on electricity or gas while using domestic appliances ! See the article http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=170282
Yet in your list there is no item that will adress this. It might be of interest to add some tools to stimulate this cost-awareness, i.e. this free software to monitor domestic energyconsumption and costs : http://econote.nibfo.eu/
/cheers
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