Energy Efficient Household Items That You Can Use Today - By: Gregg Camp

In America today, we spend over $100 billion each year on fuel and electricity for our homes. Even Seascape condos, often models of efficient living can have utility bills that can make the owners cringe. Nearly half of this cost is taken by the heating and cooling of the home, with water heating accounting for 14% and appliances account for approximately 41%. If you're interested in lowering your overall energy bills, there are a number of household items that can help you in your quest.

Changing the appliances in your home is one of the easiest ways to not only reducing your overall energy bill, but also your overall impact on the environment. Two great places to start are your washer and dryer. Prior to 1998, washers were significantly inefficient. In fact, if you have an older washer, you might be paying almost $150 more each year on your utility bill than if it was more energy efficient. Unlike the older washers, today's energy efficient models use a small amount of water since they don't have a central agitator. Advanced top loaders and front end loader machines use a sophisticated wash system to spin and spin through a smaller stream of water. These newer designs dramatically reduce the amount of hot water used in the wash cycle, reducing your water consumption, and the cost of heating it. Plus, the higher spin speeds of these more efficient motors allow more moisture to be extracted from the clothes. This means less time spent in the dryer. These are just a few of the many reasons why Seascape resort condos make use of these more efficient machines.

Of course, a washer or dryer can be a sizable investment. If you want to start on a smaller scale, there is still a lot that you can do as a home owner. One of the easiest and quickest ways to reduce your utility bill and help the environment without sacrificing is by changing your light bulbs.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Incandescent light bulbs are remarkably inefficient, both in their manufacturing, and in the amount of light emitted by the bulbs themselves. There are a number of more energy efficient choices available. Two of the most popular are Compact Fluorescence Light Bulbs (CFLs) and LED lights.

CFLs use significantly less energy to produce the same lighting effect. In fact, a CFL bulb can use only 13 watts of electricity to provide the same light as a traditional 60 watt incandescent bulb. According to the Department of Energy, an Energy Star qualified CFL bulb can use up to 75% less electricity, and can last up to 10 times longer. Since lighting can account for almost 20% of the cost of your electric bill, using these more efficient bulbs can be a great way to not only save energy, but also a lot of money. In fact, if every home in America replaced just one traditional bulb with a CFL bulb, enough energy would be saved to light nearly 3 million homes in just one short year.

Of course, CFL bulbs are not the only energy efficient choice when it comes to lighting in your home. LED lights, or light-emitting diode lights, use approximately 15% of the energy of a traditional light bulb. They've been around for quite a number of years, and are very durable. A quality LED has a lifespan of approximately 60,000 hours, almost five times longer than the compact fluorescent bulbs described above, and almost 60 times longer than a traditional bulb. In fact, these bulbs use so little energy, that they are often used in outdoor lanterns, since they can easily be powered by solar energy or a small battery. As the cost comes down and more manufacturers integrate them into household lighting, they will become more familiar and available.

Another way to conserve energy and help the environment is by installing a programmable thermostat. This thermostat can allow you to automatically adjust your home temperature based on your daily routine. By making sure the house is warm or cool only when you need it to be, you can potentially lower your energy bill by almost a third. When you're not using your Seascape home, you'll be helping the environment by conserving energy by just pressing a few buttons.

By installing and learning how to program an energy saving thermostat, you can make sure your home furnace, and air conditioning systems operate only when they are needed. Depending on your family's schedule, you will be able to see significant savings in your electric bill, and the reduction in power usage will also make your environmental impact less. The key is to make sure that you use the programmable thermostat so that your home is heated and cooled only when you need it to be. Programmable thermostats on the market today are extremely user-friendly and often come with pre-programmed settings that match average settings for daily, weekly and monthly schedules. If your daily schedule tends to change, a 7 day model programmable thermostat is the best choice. It gives you the most flexibility for those times when your children come home early from school or your mother-in-law stops by for Sunday dinner. Seven day programmable thermostats usually have four possible temperatures period for the day, so you can change things as you need to. If your schedule isn't as dynamic, other options for thermostats are available.

These are just a few of the easy to use household items that can help reduce your environmental impact as well as your energy use. There are many more, and a number of websites can give you great ideas. One of the easiest to use and understand is the Government's Energy Star website, energystar.gov. You'll be able to read about which items have be awarded the Energy Star certification, and get helpful hints on what you can do to make your home more energy efficient.

About the Author

Gregg Camp is an experienced Santa Cruz Real Estate Broker. If you're looking for a place to start your quest of lowering your overall energy bills and at the same time offers you a great and wonderful living visit Seascape Condominiums.

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