☀️Summer Energy Saving Tips☀️
Seeing your electric bill jump or double in the summer while just trying to maintain a livable space is extremely stressful. Having personally lived in the dry California desert, an unconditioned New Jersey apartment, and now the sweltering midwest, I have learned lots of different ways to beat the heat.
To give you the most information, I have also researched tips from energy companies and from eco-friendly sites and bullet point dumped every single one I found that was useful and affordable.
In this post I have compiled them into a list of quickest/easiest, and will have a second post up soon of less instant but still affordable and practical tips (second tier ideas, if you will).
☀️🤘Stay cool, stay safe, solarpunks! Please comment or reblog with any idea or solution that I have not included, and I will try to edit/add it to the list.
🧊Leave all doors to unoccupied/unused rooms closed. If it is unused, it doesn't need to be part of the cool air flow.
🧊Limit oven use, if possible. Cook with stove tops, toaster ovens, or microwaves. Stoves tend to generate a much larger amount of heat that lingers, especially when it is already warm.
🧊If your temperature is controlled by thermostat, keep all electronics and appliances away from it--they generate heat that can prematurely set off your thermastat.
🧊LED bulbs are the best bulb for staying cool because they do not generate heat, like incandescent ones. If you do not have LED bulbs, simply turning off as many lights as you can reduces heat.
🧊If you are going to be gone for 8+ hours, raising your thermostat temperature {most electric companies say 78-86°, so somewhere in this range will be easiest to return to, depending on how cool you keep your home} until you return will lower your overall energy consumption.
🧊Use hot water as little as possible--cool showers, cool water when washing dishes & clothes--will reduce the heat being generated and then eliminated by temperature control.
🧊Use your big appliances (dish washer, stove, wash machine, dryer) at the coolest part of the day. This may mean getting up early or doing it late at night, whatever is most sustainable for you. What this does is similar to the tip above; reduces heat being generated by your appliances, and makes it easier on your thermostat to control that heat.
🧊Limit light & heat entrance by keeping blinds/curtains closed. DIY energy saving curtains can be made by hanging up a comforter or dark blanket over a curtain rod, or even nailing it directly to the wall. I have hung up rugs inside the window frame, and hung a thick blanket outside the window frame, and this has reduced the heat from entering through the window amazingly. $50 energy saving curtains are not necessary--you probably have everything you need lying around the house. If you have no available blankets, towels, or rugs, hanging up sheets, clothes on hangers, or using tinfoil will help as well. Any insulation will eliminate heat. Two ways to tell if its helping is 1. Is the room darker with the covering? And 2. When you touch the covering, is it less hot than touching the glass behind it?
🧊Heat leakage through door and window cracks don't have to be professionally tackled--my mom would roll up old towels and stuff them tightly into the windowsill. She would also sew a long tube and fill it with beans/rice and would use these on the window sills and at the bottoms of doors. Easy to kick away when you need to open the door, it is still heavy enough to keep air from getting through.
🧊Ceiling fans are your first level of defense, then energy saving fans (if possible), and then box fans. To make a box fan more effective, keep it clean, and with it's back not against a wall. Putting a pan of ice (or even cool water) in front of your box fan can sometimes cool a room down faster, too.
🧊Unplug any appliance not in use! This goes for TVs, computers, microwaves, etc. Leave your fridge plugged in, though, always.
Stay tuned for post 2 and 3! I am also compiling energy saving tips for specifically humid and dry climates, as both are very different; I hope you find them helpful as well.
☆ (Disclaimer: Suggestions such as "buy a new refrigerator so it is more energy friendly" I have not included because my blog is aimed towards people who are struggling financially. I want to give them information that they can use today, not tell them about another item that they need but cannot afford. There are many energy-saving devices and technologies out there, but this list is not about what you can buy but what you can eliminate/incorporate as soon as possible.)