When exploring ways to reduce your energy bills, it can be useful to know exactly where you’re consuming energy. There are many appliances in your home that rely on electricity or gas to function. Many of them use very little energy, while others use huge amounts. Below are 7 of the biggest energy guzzlers and what you can do to make them more efficient.
Heating (31.3%)
Almost a third of the average US household’s energy usage goes towards heating the home. For those who live in colder regions with very frosty winters, this percentage is likely to be much higher.
Want to spend less on heating, but don’t want to freeze? Lowering the thermostat by one or two degrees could make a significant difference. It’s also important to regularly service your heating and make sure furnace filters are replaced regularly. Don’t underestimate the impact of insulation either – by greatly reducing heat loss, you won’t have to heat your home as often and could save huge amounts on energy.
Water heating (13.6%)
Water heating makes up a further 13.6% of household energy usage (that’s 44.9% of household energy usage going towards both space heating and water heating).
Much of our hot water usage goes towards showers and baths. Showers tend to use less water and energy, but it depends on how long your showers are – consider whether you can shorten your showers to save money on energy. Upgrades like water heater insulation and tankless water heaters may reduce energy consumption further.
Cooling (10.7%)
More than a tenth of household energy usage is due to air conditioning. In hot regions, an even bigger percentage of energy is likely to go towards cooling.
How can you cut cooling costs? Carrying out an air conditioning service annually to make sure that your AC is working efficiently could be a good start – old and faulty air con could be using up huge amounts of energy. There may also be modifications you can make to keep your home cooler in summer, which could be useful if you live in a more southerly region. This includes improvements like cool roofing or tile floors.
Refrigerators (4%)
Appliances are responsible for a lot of household energy usage. However, one appliance out-guzzles the rest: the refrigerator. It’s responsible for about 4% of our energy bills. This is partly because the refrigerator is one of the few appliances that is constantly running.
Investing in a refrigerator with a good energy rating is recommended to keep down energy costs. A 20 year old refrigerator could be using twice the amount of energy to chill your food. It’s also important to keep your refrigerator in a cool location – placing a refrigerator near a heat vent or directly near the oven could force your fridge to use more energy to stay cool.
Dryers (3.2%)
Dryers use up a lot of energy too. If you’ve got a large household and your dryer is always on, this appliance could potentially be using more energy than your fridge.
You can reduce dryer energy consumption by making sure that you’re using an energy-efficient appliance (it might be time to retire that 20 year old dryer). Alternatively, you can use your dryer less by hanging clothes on a line or drying rack instead and letting them air-dry (recommended on a hot summer’s day).
Lighting (2.8%)
In years gone by, lighting made up a much larger percentage of household energy usage. However, most people nowadays have switched to LED bulbs, which are much more efficient.
Of course, if you’re still not using LEDs it could be time to switch. You can also reduce lighting costs by making sure that lights aren’t left on in empty rooms or by using dimmer switches to lower lighting levels in the evening (this can help promote better sleep and will use less energy).
Home entertainment equipment (2.8%)
Home entertainment equipment such as TVs and speaker systems use up roughly the same amount of energy as lighting. If your TV is always on in the background, or there are TVs in every room, you may even find that home entertainment makes up a bigger slice of energy usage.
Speakers tend to use less energy than TVs, but it depends on what volume level you listen to them through. It requires more energy to produce more decibels, so consider whether you really need to put the volume up as high as you do – especially if the TV is on or listening to music all day.
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