Daily Home Renovation Tips

Editor’s Note: To view the 500+ different energy and water conservation tips for the home we have collected, simply access our free home Energy Savings and Water Savings Guide, 2nd Edition

We have reviewed over the summer and fall all the different categories of home energy and water conservation tips from our Energy Savings Guide, except one.

Today we start our review of the home energy and water reduction ideas which are more strategic, more long term and which apply to all the different energy and water resources. We have grouped this collection of money saving tips for the home (and even for the office) in a category we call ‘All’.

These suggestions are in no particular order.

Number 1, Teach Grand / Children Energy Conservation. As an instructor myself, and with children (although mine are all grown up now), this one really resonates with me. Part of the challenge I see households face with reducing their electric bill, or their heating bill, air conditioning bill, and so on is that we have bad habits.

Where do habits come from in the first place? Children see and want to emulate what they see their parents doing. For example, if their parents leave the lights on in an empty room, children will think there is nothing wrong with and will do the same.

What about what children see and are taught in schools? Just like I was never taught about money management in grade or high school, I was never taught about energy conservation either. However, if children see lights being left on in the gym when no one is using it, won’t that send a message that it is OK to leave lights on in a room when no one is there?

Children learn at school.

Children learn at home from their parents.

As well, people are creatures of habit. When you get up in the morning, do you have a routing? Perhaps your routine is to go to the bathroom, get a cup of coffee, read the paper while you are having breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, go off to work. Does it change much from one work day to the next?

What about the route you take to work in the morning and from work to go home in the evening? Does it change much? Has it become such a routine that you don’t even think about it, you simply do it?

Children are no different. Children get into habits that will last a lifetime; habits such as brushing their teach in the morning and at night, putting their dirty clothes in the hamper (and not just on the floor), doing their homework as soon as they come home from school, and so on.

Why not teach children to get into energy conservation habits that will last them a lifetime as well?

Which habits? There are more than 500 possible energy conservation habits on our Un-Official Guide to Home Energy and Water Conservation from which you can choose.

Start some of them yourself so they can learn by your actions. Talk to them about why your new energy conservation habits are important, why you are doing them. Ask your child’s teacher what she / he is doing in the classroom and what the school is doing to promote energy conservation habits in the school.

If the teacher wants to do more but has run out of energy conservation ideas, feel free to send them the link to our Un-Official Guide .

Number 2, Always Consider How Much It Will Cost. Another great energy conservation tip contributed by a contestant in a previous energy conservation contest held at DailyHomeRenoTips.com.

Remember, the selfish reason to reduce your household’s electricity, natural gas, home heating oil and clean water usage is to save you money through reduced utility bills.

So, start to get into the habit of thinking for a few seconds if leaving the room with the light on will cost you money. Begin to question if the plasma television you are thinking of buying is so much better than a comparable LCD TV that it is worth paying more for the additional electricity plasma TVs are said to use vs LCD TVs every time it is on for the next 10 years or so.

Think about the balance in your bank account going up if you set your thermostat lower in the winter by even just a degree during the day when you are home and perhaps two degrees lower when you are out because it will cost you less on your home’s heating bills.

And so on.

Number 3, Energy Conservation Web Sites. There is a lot of information out on the Internet. Why not help yourself to learn more about energy conservation by going through different energy (and water for that matter) conservation web sites to see the different ways different people use to reduce their household’s energy consumption.

They can be personal blogs or more professional web sites run by for-profit companies, non-profit conservation focused organizations, public utilities or even private utilities.

How much time would you take to learn about different ways to save yourself money (through reduced energy and water utility bills)?

Sure, we have 500+ energy and water conservation tips listed on the Energy Conservation page of this web site to get started right away. Or you can click on the Energy Conservation category to start to go through all the different articles we have written over the past two years on this topic.

There are several energy conservation sites we like listed in our Blog Roll under Energy Conservation Sites to get you started quickly on what are on other web sites. 

Or, just use your favorite Internet search engine and start looking.

Number 4, Energy Conservation TV Shows. Prefer the ease and comfort of the television over the Internet?

No problem.

Simply go through your TV guide right now to see what energy conservation related TV show is being broadcast at the present time, or at the top of the house.

With all the specialty TV channels, it is a pretty safe assumption that on one of the hundreds of channels you may be receiving through your TV that at least one of them will be broadcasting a show on energy conservation.

If not, what about a TV show on home renovations? If you have watched any of them lately, whether it is a nationally broadcast renovation show in prime time like Extreme Makeover - Home Edition, or one from your local cable provider,  you can be assured that most of the time they will include something on how the renovation or products they use will save the homeowner money through reduced electric or heating or cooling or water utility bills.

To view more from our list of home energy and water conservation tips which can save you money, simply select this link to Part 2.