Green Zone - Conserving Energy At Home

We’ve covered what Zone 5 did to conserve energy in our office. Now let’s review a few simple things we can do for ourselves at home. Saving energy at home should be nearly free to implement while providing immediate savings. We all know to turn the heat down before leaving the house, and to turn the lights off when leaving a room. For me, it’s all about temperature. 

People are always shocked to learn I set my heat to 70+ degrees when home. I’m always surprised to hear that others are going home to a cold evening filled with sweaters, slippers, and blankets. There’s no question that lowering your thermostat helps to conserve energy and save money, but being uncomfortable in your own home is missing the mark. We should never suffer especially as a result of trying to do the right thing. Since I don’t conserve energy by lowering the thermostat I had to find another way.

Ever turn your faucet to hot and then burn your hand? If you can scauld yourself with your tap water chances are you could stand to lower your hot water heater’s thermostat. It’s perpetually heating the water day and night. The higher the temp it’s set at the more energy it uses. Lowering it a degree or two will save you money and you’ll never notice the difference.

I love food but don’t cook. My refrigerator usually houses things like red bull and leftover pizza instead of items you would need to make a gourmet meal at home. Again it occurred to me that there might be an opportunity to save by lowering the thermostat. I put a thermometer in there and sure enough my condiments were being chilled to a frosty 33 degrees. I turned the dial down and the temp went up to 40 degrees which is much more reasonable.

Washing my clothes in cold water seems to be working out great. I bought some Tide Coldwater and never looked back. Even my dirtiest grease-covered mechanic coat and gloves come out clean. I never have to worry about shrinking anything or any other laundry disasters and I conserve energy by avoiding the hot water heater entirely. 

My last example doesn’t involve a thermostat, but it’s still related to heat. Change out the filter on your furnace. I was very surprised that only a couple months into the season my furnace filter was completely clogged with dirt and debris. A new filter costs almost nothing and will keep your furnace running at maximum efficiency.

One important point. All of these energy conserving examples are automated. You spend a few minutes doing each one once and then forget about it. This is how we can make a difference for ourselves. If I have to do something over and over in order to make a postive change I know eventually I’ll burn out. Other than the furnace filter I never have to think about these items again. My appliances are going to do all the work for me.

Next we’re going back to the office to review a cornerstone of environmentalism. Proper recycling.