Hot Weather Energy Saving Tips
Save energy cooling your home
Hot weather help
Save on energy:
...for heating
...in your kitchen
...for the water heater
...on lighting your home
...in the laundry room
Here are some ideas for saving energy on air conditioning:
- Set air conditioning
at 78 degrees or higher.
- Close drapes
on the sunny side of the house.
- Keep windows
open at night and close in the morning before it warms up.
- Add bamboo
or vinyl blinds outside sunny windows to block heat transfer.
- If inside
draperies are used to shade the window, there is still considerable
heat buildup in between the drapes and the window. If nothing
else does the job put aluminum foil on the window.
- Plant trees
and shrubs to shade south and west-facing windows.
- For a quicker
solution add a lattice screen with a vine plant on it.
- Make sure
the screen is far enough from the house wall to keep the plants
off the building.
- Self-adhesive
window tints can be cut to fit most standard windows.
- Also available
are movable shades in dark-tinted mylar that roll up like a fabric
window shade.
- Use cross-ventilation.
- Open a window
high on one side of your house and another one low on the other
side. This will promote natural cross ventilation.
- Do this in
the cool of the early morning or evening.
- Use the kitchen
and bathroom exhaust fans to help pull cool air through. The furnace
fan helps circulate cool outside air around the house.
- Keep windows
closed during the heat of the day.
- Avoid cooking
indoors to keep oven and stove heat from contributing to the home's
temperature.
- Re-schedule
baking and broiling to a cooler time of day. If you have to cook
indoors, use the kitchen range hood to help vent away hot air.
- Keep lights
off when possible.
- A 100-watt
standard light bulb puts out about 90 watts of heat and halogen
torchiere uplights are equivalent to small space heaters.
- Change as
many lights as you can to cooler operating fluorescent and you'll
reduce the lighting-related heat in the house.
