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 9, Have Family Energy & Water Conservation Meetings. What a great way to support tip Number 1, Teach Grand / Children Energy Conservation, than to hold once a month or once a week energy and water conservation meetings.

Perhaps you can have one over dinner each time a new utility bill arrives for payment so your children make the connection that consuming electricity, water, natural gas, etc. equates directly to money leaving the family which could have gone for a movie night out, or a special desert, etc.

Perhaps you decide to start using a new set of ten tips from this Un-Official Guide to Home Energy & Water Conservation at the first of each month. Perhaps the children can be tasked with reviewing the list and selecting the next 10 that the family will follow for the week or month.

It costs you nothing to have these meetings yet having them frequently will soon get you and your family members into the habit of discussing and thinking and taking action on energy and water conservation.

Number 10, Home Energy Audit - Self. You do not need the meters and fan and other equipment associated with the blower test that is part of a professional home energy audit. You can, and should, take a few minutes every so often to look for air leaks in different areas of your home, for devices which are plugged in but not running or needed (for example, why is your dehumidifier plugged in and turned on in the winter when you actually want and need more humidity, not less, in the home?).

On a cold day, simply go around to all the windows in your home and place your fingers gently around the window frames to see if you feel any cold air entering the house. If you do, then you likely need to replace the caulking on the outside of the window frame.

Same for your front and rear and side doors leading outside the home. Same for the cold cellar door. If you feel a cold draft then likely you need more insulation or replace the weather stripping around the door frame.

Same for refrigerator and freezer. If you feel a cold draft, then you likely need to replace the weather stripping on the inside.

Look for any worn caulking around pipes and cables entering your home. If you see gaps, note them so you remember to remove the old caulking and replace it with new caulking.

And so on. You don’t need a professional to do this around your own home.

Number 11, Focus on Saving Money. Don’t believe in the whole ozone layer depletion, global warming, peak oil, et. al. energy conservation issues?

Do you believe in saving your money? If you do, if you do not want to waste your own money, then that is your motivation for applying energy and water conservation ideas in your own home to save you money, regardless of whether or not you agree with Al Gore.

When making purchases, all things being equal, you will save money if the appliance you purchase uses less electricity, natural gas, home heating oil or water resources. Don’t forget to compare the EnerGuide ratings on the EnerGuide stickers one sees on most appliances these days.

Number 12, Use Less. Really, it is that simple. If you use a gas or electric lawn mower, wait one more day each time before mowing the lawn. By the end of the lawn mowing season you would have mowed your lawn once, twice or even up to three or four times less to save you money through less gasoline or electricity used to operate your lawn mower.

Going on a diet could see you open the refrigerator less which will keep more of its cold air inside and thus causing the refrigerator to run less to cool air and thus reduce its operating costs.

Watch TV less to reduce the amount of electricity the TV, its receiver, etc. use.

And so on.

Tomorrow, we wrap up our look at the home energy and water conservation ideas which are more long term in nature and impact all forms of non-renewable energy as well as clean water.