Do You Know How Your Home Uses Electricity? (courtesy of Duke Energy)
When the weather turns cool, saving money on energy bills becomes a priority for many families. And saving money on energy bills puts the focus on energy efficiency. A good first step to becoming energy efficient is to identify which areas of your home consume the most energy.
Typically, your home’s heating and cooling system accounts for the largest percentage of your yearly energy budget according to the 2007 Buildings Energy Data Book. But right after heating and cooling are your home’s water heater and lighting.
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How We Use Energy in Our Home
| Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be. Electrical devices that either produce heat or keep things cool use the most electricity. Incandescent light bulbs, for example, burn hot.Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), on the other hand, provide the same amount of light as an ordinary bulb, but use about 75 percent less energy, last up to 10 times longer and burn much cooler. Replace bulbs in high-use areas such as the living room, kitchen and outside porch lights with CFLs. Consider using lighting sensor controls, dimmers and timers to reduce your lighting use. These are simple changes that can result in savings on your monthly bill.
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2 comments:
I live in a small apartment and spoke last week with Duke Energy about my electrical usage. Duke Energy said to me that even after I turn off all breakers in my Service Panel, that "electricity will continue to be used for 15-20 min." That it "...takes 15-20 min. for usage to stop even after shutting off the breakers."
Does anyone know if this is true? I would have thought that when all breakers we're off, no electricity could be used and the meter would stop at the reading when everything is shutdown at the panel.
I really like your ideas explained here, though I found there was also a lot that I liked at this site and it had quite a bit of useful ideas that has led to me saving about $60 a month on my power bill
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