There are many different ways to reduce the energy use in your home, starting from simple behavioral adjustments to extensive home improvements.
Whether you do it for environmental reasons or to save on your utility bills, we applaud your initiative. The thing is, you need to do a little research before deciding what’s best for your energy use.
There are some myths that are circulating among people on how to reduce energy use, but are they really true? We did some research of our own and made a list of 9 debunked myths on saving energy in your home that are actually more expensive than you thought or just not that good for the environment.
- Turning off the A/C when you leave for lower energy bills - When you come back home and turn on the AC unit, the thermostat will have to work overtime to cool your house back down, using more energy than just leaving it on a higher setting while you’re gone.
- Closing the vents in the rooms you don’t use - If you decide to close some of the vents, you’ll reduce the efficiency of the heating and cooling system. The air blower is designed to move the air whether you leave all the vents open or choose to close some of them.
- Replacing old windows to save on energy bills - Yes, there is something partially true about that: new windows are definitely more energy-efficient. While they make your home more comfortable, they cost a big amount of money, so from this point of view, you won’t be saving much.
- Believing that ceiling fans are cooling the room - Would you believe us if we told you that ceiling fans are actually producing heat?
- Heavy curtains or drapes help on saving energy during colder times - Although you might feel fewer drafts near the window, the air between the cold window and the fabric cools and falls faster than the air in the rest of the room.
- Turning something off and believing it stops using electricity - There’s this term called “vampire” electricity use, which means that when something is plugged in and then switched “off”, it continues to draw electricity to power their latent systems.
- Turning up the thermostat to fasten the heating process - If you jack up your thermostat, it will waste energy.
- Using electric space heaters to make some rooms warmer - If you’ll do this, it will only cost you more. The energy required to fire up some space heaters comes at a high price.
- Washing dishes by hand to save energy - Sorry to break this to you, but if you wash your dishes by hand, it will need more hot water than a dishwasher does, so the costs of energy will be higher.
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