Energy Efficiency and Your Home

Reducing your Electric Bill with Renewable Energy

Using renewable energy to produce electricity and reduce your electric bill can be a sound long-term investment. Depending on the type of technology, you can expect a full return on your investment within 3 to 18 years. With financial or tax rebates from your utility company or state and national government, the payback period on your investment can be cut in half.

However, the very first step to considering any renewable energy system must be how to make your home or business more energy efficient. Generally, the basic rule is that for every $1 you spend on making your location more energy efficient, you save $3 to $5 on the cost of the renewable energy system. Let's go over some basic ways you can make your home more energy efficient.

Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Examples of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs.

One of the easiest things that you can do to reduce your electrical consumption is change out your regular incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use 65 to 75% less energy than a normal light bulb that produces the same amount of light. By replacing a normal 100 watt incandescent light bulb with a 32 watt CFL, you will save $60 to $80 in electricity costs over the lifetime of that bulb (10,000 hours). Now imagine how much you would save if you changed out all of your light bulbs to CFLs!

The technology for these bulbs has quickly evolved and improved in the last few years. You'll find that there are CFLs that will now fit most light fixtures. So go out at your local department or hardware store and purchase CFLs for as many of your light fixtures as possible. The investment is well worth it.

Another alternative to traditional lights are tubular skylights . Tubular skylights look a little like shiny stove pipes that start with a transparent dome on top of the roof and come down into some room for day lighting. We frequently see customers using tubular skylights to bring daylight into hallways and closets. The light is, of course, entirely natural and provides as much illumination as a 100 watt incandescent light bulb.

One of the biggest consumers of electricity in most households is the refrigerator. If your refrigerator is over 10 years old chances are it's electrically very inefficient. Consider replacing your current refrigerator with one that has a very good Energy Star rating. Remember just because a refrigerator may have come with a yellow Energy Star label doesn't mean it's particularly energy efficient. You need to select one that's a leader in energy efficiency (on the Energy Star label it will indicate that the refrigerator is one of the most efficient available for its type). An easy way to find out which refrigerators have the best energy efficiency rating is to visit Energy Star's website: www.EnergyStar.gov. There you can search for the brand, type and size of refrigerator you want and sort by energy efficiency.