Lets Save Energy

Some energy Saving Tips which will help you reduce your Energy Bills…


Getting started - free and low cost ways to save energy

Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc.

Check your furnace or air conditioner filter each month. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing energy use.

During hot months, keep window coverings closed on the south, east, and west windows if you are in Northern Hemisphere (north, east, and west windows if you are in the Southern Hemisphere). In winter, let the sun in.

Activate "sleep" features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use.

Dress appropriately for the weather, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting. On winter nights, put an extra blanket on the bed and turn down your thermostat.

In summer, use fans whenever possible instead of air conditioning . Using fans to supplement air conditioning allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, using less energy. Fans use less energy than air conditioning.

About 15% of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher. Lower the temperature on your water heater so that you are not having to add cold water to shower.

Switch to cold water washing of laundry. Use detergent formulated for cold water to get clothes just as clean.

Only heat or cool the rooms you need. Close vents and doors of unused rooms.

Install low flow showerheads and sink aerators to reduce hot water use.

Seal and weatherstrip your windows and doors to ensure that you're not wasting energy on heat or air conditioning that escapes through leaks to the outdoors.

Insulation your hot water tank to keep the heat from escaping.

Look for energy efficiency labels when buying new products such as TVs, furnaces, cell phones, refrigerators and air conditioners.

Replace your five most used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. These light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer.

Recycle minor things e.g. reuse empty soda bottles.

Take your own reusable bags to do grocery shopping to save the unnecessary production of plastic bags.

Only use air conditioning to achieve neutral temperatures (24-25 degrees). Lower temperatures use significantly more energy.


Energy saving tips for your car

Drive sensibly. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gasoline, it can lower your highway gas mileage 33% and city mileage 5%.

Consider buying a highly fuel-efficient vehicle. A fuel-efficient vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, or an alternative fuel vehicle could save you a lot at the gas pump and help the environment.

Combine errands into one trip. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start, can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

Get regular engine tune-ups. Replacing clogged air filters can improve gas mileage by as much as 10% and protect your engine.

Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to improve your gasoline mileage by around 3%.

Use the grade of motor oil recommended by your car's manufacturer. Using a different motor oil can lower your gasoline mileage by 2%.

Consider telecommuting, carpooling and public transit to cut mileage and car maintenance costs.

Reduce drag by placing items inside the car or trunk rather than on roof racks. A loaded roof rack can decrease your fuel economy by 5%.

Clear out your car; extra weight decreases gas mileage.

Use air conditioning only when necessary, consider opening a window instead.


Make your house energy efficient with insulation

Save up to 20% of the energy you use to heat and cool your house. Seal up holes to the outside by weatherstripping doors and sealing windows.

Adding insulation to attics, basements, and crawl spaces provides tremendous energy savings.

Efficient windows can lower the energy used for heating and cooling by up to 30%. If your home has only single pane windows, consider replacing them with energy efficient windows.

For people who live in mobile homes siding skirts insulate against winds in the winter and heat in the summer. The air conditioning ducts are often under the home so the skirts will also help to insulate the ducts.


Energy efficient home appliances and electronics

Appliances account for about 20% of household energy use. Appliances and electronics really add up on your energy bill. When shopping for new appliances and electronics look for energy efficiency labels.

Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.

Clean the lint filter in the dryer after every load.

Consider air-drying clothes on clothes lines or drying racks.

Consider buying a laptop for your next computer upgrade; they use much less energy than desktop computers.

Don't over-dry your clothes. If your machine has a moisture sensor, use it.

Dry towels and heavier cottons in a separate load from lighter-weight clothes.

Make sure power management is activated on your computer.

In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Plug home electronics into power strips and turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use.

Wash your clothes in cold water using cold-water detergents whenever possible.

Unplug battery chargers when the batteries are fully charged or the chargers are not in use. Many chargers draw power continuously, even when the device is not plugged into the charger.

Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.

Use the cool-down cycle to allow the clothes to finish drying with the residual heat in the dryer.

Wash and dry full loads. If you are washing a small load, use the appropriate water-level setting.

When shopping for a new clothes dryer, look for one with a moisture sensor that automatically shuts off the machine when your clothes are dry.


Energy efficient lighting

Take advantage of daylight by using light-colored, loose-weave curtains on your windows to allow daylight to penetrate the room while preserving privacy. Also, decorate with lighter colors that reflect daylight.

Use task lighting; instead of brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it. For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting for kitchen sinks and counter-tops under cabinets.

Use dimmers, motion sensors, or occupancy sensors to automatically turn on or off lighting as needed and prevent energy waste.

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in place of comparable incandescent bulbs to save about 50% on your lighting costs. CFLs use only one-fourth the energy and last up to 10 times longer.

Turn your lights off when you leave a room. Standard, incandescent light bulbs should be turned off whenever they are not needed. Fluorescent lights should be turned off whenever you'll be away for 15 minutes or more.

During winter, open curtains on your south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home and close them at night to help keep the heat in.


Home appliances

1. Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.

2. Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.

3. Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use.

4. Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.

5. Select the most energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Replacing a typical 1973 refrigerator with a new energy-efficient model, saves 1.4 tons of CO2 per year. Investing in a solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually.

Home Heating and Cooling

6. Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.

7. Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.

Small investments that pay off

8. Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year.

9. Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.

10. Use less hot water by installing low-flow shower heads. They cost just $10 to $20 each, deliver an invigorating shower, and save 300 pounds of CO2 per year for electrically heated water, or 80 pounds for gas-heated water.

11. Weatherize your home or apartment, using caulk and weather stripping to plug air leaks around doors and windows. Caulking costs less than $1 per window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door. These steps can save up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air conditioning.

Getting around

12. Whenever possible, walk, bike, car pool, or use mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids 22 pounds of CO2 emissions. If your car gets 25 miles per gallon, for example, and you reduce your annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, you'll save 1800 pounds of CO2.

13. When you next buy a car, choose one that gets good mileage. If your new car gets 40 miles per gallon instead of 25, and you drive 10,000 miles per year, you'll reduce your annual CO2 emissions by 3,300 pounds.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

14. Reduce the amount of waste you produce by buying minimally packaged goods, choosing reusable products over disposable ones, and recycling. For every pound of waste you eliminate or recycle, you save energy and reduce emissions of CO2 by at least 1 pound. Cutting down your garbage by half of one large trash bag per week saves at least 1100 pounds of CO2 per year. Making products with recycled materials, instead of from scratch with raw materials, uses 30 to 55% less for paper products, 33% less for glass, and a whopping 90% less for aluminum.

15. If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recovered and recycled whenever you have it serviced. In the United States, leakage from auto air conditioners is the largest single source of emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer as well as add to global warming. The CFCs from one auto air conditioner can add the equivalent of 4800 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.

Home Improvements.

When you plan major home improvements, consider some of these energy saving investments. They save money in the long run, and their CO2 savings can often be measured in tons per year.

16. Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home heating bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 140 to 2100 pounds per year. If you live in a colder climate, consider superinsulating. That can save 5.5 tons of CO2 per year for gas-heated homes, 8.8 tons per year for oil heat, or 23 tons per year for electric heat. (If you have electric heat, you might also consider switching to more efficient gas or oil.)

17. Modernize your windows. Replacing all your ordinary windows with argon filled, double-glazed windows saves 2.4 tons of CO2 per year for homes with gas heat, 3.9 tons of oil heat, and 9.8 tons for electric heat.

18. Plant shade trees and paint your house a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color if you live in a cold climate. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees and appropriate painting can save up to 2.4 tons of CO2 emissions per year. (Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air annually.)

Business and community

19. Work with your employer to implement these and other energy-efficiency and waste-reduction measures in your office or workplace. Form or join local citizens' groups and work with local government officials to see that these measures are taken in schools and public buildings.

20. Keep track of the environmental voting records of candidates for office. Stay abreast of environmental issues on both local and national levels, and write or call your elected officials to express your concerns about energy efficiency and global warming.

21. Replace old light bulbs with energy saving fluorescent bulbs. They may cost more, but will save you much more in the long run.

22. Turn off all electronic devices that are not in use. Not only turn them off but try to remember to unplug them. You will be surprised how much you will save with this simple step!

23. Air dry your dishes. When washing in a dish washer, the heat generated during the wash cycle is more than enough to dry your dishes.

24. Clean or replace air filters regularly. This can vary depending on the filter you are using. It's important to follow the instruction found on the packaging. If you no longer have it, here are some basic guidelines:

* Deep Pleated = Once or twice a year

* Ordinary Flat or Pleated = 2-3 Months

* Traditional Fiberglass/Polyester = Monthly

It is also important that your air filter fits properly and air is moving through it and not around it.

25. Close vents and doors in unused rooms. No need to cool or warm areas that people are not in.

26. Weather strip doors and windows! Weather stripping is an inexpensive alternative to replacing windows and will save you hundreds of dollars!

27. Wash clothes in cold water. Believe it or not cold water does clean, and many laundry soap manufacturers now offer soaps specifically made for washing clothes in cold water.

28. Repair or replace leaky faucets. A leaky faucet waste upwards of 30,000 gallons of water a year. Thats right, imagine what you would be saving with a quick fix!

29. Wash clothes in the morning or evening when its cooler. Sounds silly but the heat generated by the dryer will warm the house and in the summer months your air conditioner will use more energy to cool your home.

30. When shopping for new appliances invest in Energy Star. Energy Star appliances are not by any means cheap, but the upfront cost will pay for it self ten fold in the amount of energy you will be saving over time.

What we can do to save energy?

* Set your home’s thermostat a few degrees lower. For each one-degree change, your family can save up to 5 percent on your home’s heating and cooling costs!
* photo of dish washer.Turn off lights and all electronics (like computers, televisions, stereos, and video-games) when you leave a room.
* Use the microwave instead of the oven for cooking your meals.
* Use machines like washers, dryers, and dishwashers after 8 p.m.
* Open your blinds or curtains on sunny winter days to let the sun shine into your home.
* Save hot water by taking short showers instead of baths.
* Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
* Occasionally hold a ribbon up to the edges of your home’s windows. If air is leaking into, or out of, the house, the ribbon will move. If you find a leak, let someone in your family know so they can fix it.

What your family can do to conserve energy?

TVA’s energy right program helps you find ways to make your home or business more energy-efficient and lower your power bills. Complete a free online home energy audit and you’ll receive a detailed report on energy-efficiency improvements you can make.

You can set up a rain barrel to collect the water that runs off your roof and use it water the lawn or wash the car.

What your community can do?

U.S. Green Building Council

The Green Building Council helps builders and governments learn about how to make buildings that use less energy and are friendly to the environment.
Cool Cities

The Cool Cities campaign helps city residents and leaders learn how their city can save energy, reduce air pollution, and fight global warming.
Solar America Cities

Solar America Cities are chosen for their commitment to increased use of solar technologies in their homes and businesses. Each cities’ solar projects further President Bush’s Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar electricity less costly by 2015. There are 12 solar cities for 2008 and one of those is Knoxville, Tennessee. The city plans to use the money to install solar panels in its new bus station and to build a net-zero energy home.
LED Lighting

Many towns and cities are saving money on their power bills by changing from incandescent light bulbs to light-emitting diode (LED) lights. These lights can be used in traffic signals, crosswalk signs, and even holiday displays.

LED lights have an extremely long life span and use much less energy than incandescent bulbs. Switching to LED lighting can save 40 to 70 percent of the electricity a city uses for certain lights in parking garages, parking lots, outdoor parks, and on streets.

The cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, are taking part in LED City, a program designed to help cities use LED lighting to save energy, protect the environment, and lower costs. Find out how your city can become an LED City.

The ball that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in New York City was recently changed over to LED lighting. The 9,576 LED lights replaced the 600 incandescent bulbs used in the previous ball. The new ball is more than twice as bright as the old one, but it uses only as much energy as a regular-size stove or oven.