The solutions to many environmental problems — such as deforestation, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, cobalt mining, overfishing and water insecurity — seem out of reach for most individuals. Fortunately, reducing energy consumption to help slow climate change is more attainable than the other things the planet may require from you.
Motivating yourself to go out of your way to use less electricity and natural gas is easy because succeeding means more money stays in your pocket. When reviewing your utility bills, you can immediately confirm whether your efforts bear fruit. However, this green path can feel less sustainable and rewarding when your gains don’t justify your sacrifices.
Understand why your actions may not translate into more energy savings and what you can do about it.
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Why Some Strategies to Reduce Energy Use Fail
Some strategies to reduce energy consumption fall short of expectations because the premises underpinning them need reconsideration. For example, harnessing solar power and believing that upgrading to efficient appliances can significantly reduce your energy consumption without examining your behavior can backfire. These moves may lull you into a false sense of security, causing you to mind your usage less and advertently consume more energy.
Generating electricity at home to rely on the grid less and swapping inefficient appliances for energy-saving ones are crucial for reducing your carbon footprint and lowering your utility bills. However, you should take more steps to increase your gains meaningfully and sustainably.
5 Surefire Ways to Save Energy With Noticeable Results
Effective strategies to reduce energy consumption raise awareness of usage and minimize the amount of effort required. Use these practical tips to enjoy more gains.
1. Monitor Your Usage
You’re gravely mistaken if you think you’re saving energy when you power off your gadgets without unplugging them. Most, if not all, of them are just sleeping, not dead. They draw plug loads — electricity continuously consumed by appliances to sustain some functionality while on standby mode.
Plug loads vary by house. The more appliances you keep plugged in after use, the more wasted power you consume and pay for. Although isolated plug loads are too negligible to make your electric meter run faster, they add up and noticeably inflate your annual energy use.
You can’t calculate how much electricity you save without knowing how much you currently use. Use home energy monitors to see how much electricity your household appliances and electronics consume when in use and supposedly off.
You can use appliance-specific devices or smart plugs. You connect home energy monitors to electric sockets, and they can measure the plug loads of the appliances hooked up to them.
2. Use Point-of-Use Surge Protectors
Surge protectors do more than safeguard electric-powered devices against abnormally high transient voltage, which can happen when electricity returns after a power outage or lightning strikes. When turned off, surge protectors zero out the connected devices’ plug loads.
When shopping for surge protectors, choose point-of-use ones. A whole-house surge protector offsets the effects of transient voltage on your appliances but offers no energy-saving benefits. The point-of-use kind does.
Moreover, point-of-use surge protectors are efficient because they accommodate multiple devices simultaneously. These power strips have a switch you can turn on or off to cut the flow of electricity from the wall outlet into it and, by extension, the devices plugged into it. Some have outlets with dedicated power switches, giving you more control over electricity flow between the grid and your plug-load-consuming devices.
3. Automate What You Can
Human error can cause chronic energy waste. Many forget to turn off the light when exiting a room or adjust the thermostat when leaving the house for work.
Everybody makes mistakes — including you, no matter how motivated you are to reduce energy consumption at every turn. You may feel too exhausted to bother unplugging your unused devices, setting your thermostat accordingly or turning off the lights where the sun can reach.
Create a smart home. Invest in smart devices to minimize energy waste with little effort. You can automate these devices, telling them what to do at certain times. Some can also think for themselves and select settings based on personal preferences by analyzing historical usage data. Smart devices are controllable remotely via a mobile app when connected to Wi-Fi, giving you the luxury to control how your home works when you’re away.
Smart home technology has matured enough that almost any house feature related to your property’s energy use, water consumption, temperature, security, lighting and entertainment has a smart version. Setting up smart devices has become so simple you can run your home entirely on them. If you can’t, you’ll get by with a smart thermostat, lights, plugs and surge protectors.
4. Install Sufficient Insulation
Heat can move from inside to outside — and vice versa — through solid objects. When underinsulated, airtight rooms can feel like a furnace in the summer or a freezer in the winter. Insulation performance can diminish due to moisture, causing the material to compress and lose effectiveness.
However, more insulation doesn’t mean better. Overinsulation is a thing, choking your house and keeping it from venting moisture to the outside. The ideal amount of insulation minimizes heat transfer without trapping moisture.
You can’t determine when enough is enough based on the amount and thickness of material you use. Instead, you should aim to meet your area’s recommended R-values — or thermal resistance values — for different house parts to neutralize your local climate.
For example, the lowest points of Texas and Florida generally experience very hot and humid weather. The wood-framed houses in these areas need floors with an R-value of 13 to resist heat transfer adequately.
Targeting the right amount of R-value for your home is the key to having sufficient insulation where it counts. This goal can lower your utility bills by about 10% yearly, reduce your energy consumption, minimize your carbon footprint and help increase your property’s value.
5. Patch Up Air Leaks
Timber-framed houses are prone to cracking. If you live in one, your home will eventually develop gaps around windows and doors, within the attic, basement, and crawl space sections, and around plumbing and electrical penetrations. These gaps leak heated or conditioned indoor air and cause drafts to enter your rooms.
Air leakage is a silent energy drain. On average, space heating and air conditioning account for 55.08% of a house’s annual energy consumption.
A home energy assessment matters to identify these pockets of heat loss and considerably reduce waste. You can do it yourself by conducting a blower door test, which depressurizes your property and reveals locations where air can escape and get in. Alternatively, schedule a professional assessment with a credentialed energy auditor.
This professional uses advanced equipment to detect air leaks and offer expert recommendations to improve your home’s energy efficiency. You might learn things you otherwise wouldn’t realize — like your double-paned windows that have become inefficient after losing a significant amount of their gas fill over time.
Get Noticeable Results From Your Energy-Saving Efforts
Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances and generating electricity at home are just half the battle. Adopt these strategies to note greater, greener gains.