Saving Electricity in your Home.

By admin • January 11th, 2009

Department of Energy Electric Cost Forecast

The Department of Energy has recently reported it’s forecast for 2009 electric prices. View Here. They have projected a 4.8% increase in electricity prices this year. So, it might be a good time to get a contract with an energy company for 1 year or longer. Texas Residents Click Here for current residential and commercial prices at Affordable Energy. At the time of this writing, many Texas residents can receive a 10%-20% or more savings.

Some Tips from Energy Star

Saving money on electric energy bills is crucial these days. Don’t buy a central air unit that is too big. It may run too infrequently and cause humidity buildup before it cycles again. Try to get the right size and energy rating for best results. Click Here.

Air conditioning MYTH

It is a Myth that it saves money if you let your air conditioner run all day while you are at work. Think of it this way. Heat is attracted by cool. The heat from outside is attracted to your cooler inside. The cooler it is inside your house, the more heat will try to invade. The cooler it is, the more “house fulls” of heat will need to be displaced by your AC unit.

Instead turn your AC off while gone

Unless your house becomes too hot for too long when you return. If that’s the case, you may need to get a larger AC unit, or make sure your insulation is up to par. Especially the insulation in the attic. Check the seals around doors and windows as well. You may also raise the temp in the house to a level that the ac can handle within a few minutes of your return from work. such as to 90 degrees. You can test this. Just turn your ac off, and then go to your electric meter and take a reading.  Find out how much energy you use when you have the AC off, then, try leaving it on, but pretty high, like 90 degrees or more. Compare how much more electricity you used when it was on, but the thermostat was set high.

Find out at what setting your house cools down the fastest, and compare that to the electric usage. This will give you a good idea of what you need to do. In my case, I found that turning it off in the summer meant that my AC would have to crank for hours to lower the overall temperatures just a little bit. So for me, the answer was a stronger, (higher BTU) machine, as well as some badly needed insulation.

Get used to a higher indoor temperature

Every degree below 78 degrees will cost you 3%-4% more in cooling bills! If you have a good air conditioning unit, that is capable of high energy efficiency and able to draw humidity out of the air, then use fans. You can keep the temperature at 80 degrees while at home, but with fans feel very good. Don’t leave fans on while you are not at home, because only humans, (and pets) are affected by the fans. They just help our innate cooling system work a little more efficiently. If you have ceiling fans, they work great, but set them to blow down. They need to blow on you.

The quickest way to obtain lower more affordable electric bills is to change to an electric company that has lower rates. If your city in Texas has been energy deregulated, then please click here for rates that are good right now for Residential Electricity Rates or Commercial Energy Rates.

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