Conservation

• Turn off lights, appliances, electronics (i.e. stereo, computers, TV) when not in use.  Do not use stand by modes on computer and electronics.  Home electronic products use energy when they’re off to power features like clock displays and remote controls. U.S. households spend $100 per year to power devices while they are in this “standby” power mode.
• The proper maintenance and use of house hold appliance can reduce electric consumption by 20% to 40%.  A refrigerator alone can use up to 25% of your house electric budget.  A typical house hold microwave, oven and stove use 200 to 700 kwh annually.  Use the following guidelines to reduce your electric usage.

• Keep the fridge as full as possible.
• Make sure that the refrigerator is not placed against outside facing wall or walls exposed to the sunlight.
• Keep your refrigerator and freezer at the right temperature. If they are only 2-3 degrees colder than necessary, your energy consumption may go up by approx. 25 %.
• Clean the area beneath and around your refrigerator on a quarterly basis. This allows better air flow around the units allowing more efficient heat transfer.
• Make sure the door is sealed tightly. If it’s not, you’re wasting energy.
• Do not put uncovered liquids in the refrigerator. The liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.
• Allow hot food to cool off before putting it in the refrigerator.
• Plan ahead and remove all ingredients for each meal at one time.

• When cooking with electric set timers to minimized cooking time.
• Every time you open your oven door during cooking, you lose 5 to 7 degrees or more.
• Check the seal on your oven door to see if there are cracks or tears in it.
• Develop the habit of “lids-on” cooking to permit lower temperature settings.
• Keep reflector pans beneath stovetop heating elements bright and clean.
• Carefully measure water used for cooking to avoid having to heat more than is needed.
• Begin cooking on highest heat until liquid begins to boil. Then lower the heat control settings and allow food to simmer until fully cooked.
• Cook as much of the meal in the oven at one time as possible.
• Rearrange oven shelves before turning your oven on – and don’t peek at food in the oven!
• There is no need to preheat the oven for broiling or roasting.When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient.
• Microwaves use around 50% less energy than conventional ovens and cooks for much shorter periods. Thus, microwaves are more efficient for cooking small portions and defrosting.

• Don’t switch your air conditioner thermostat to a colder setting when you first turn it on. It won’t cool your home any faster and it will waste energy when you forget to turn it back up.
• Minimize the amount of direct heat entering your home by pulling shades and curtains on hot days.
• Maintain you’re heating and cooling equipment through a Planned Maintenance Program, which should include filter changes, condenser coil, and fan coil cleaning. Have your air conditioning unit checked every 6 months. If the Freon level is not correct, you will waste a lot of energy and your home will never be as cool as you want it.
• Every time you open a door you’re letting in new air that needs to be de-humidified, thus making your air conditioner work much harder. Set the temperature as high as possible while still being comfortable.
• Set your thermostat to as high as comfort permits, may be a few degrees higher. When the weather is mild, turn off the AC and open the windows. You can use combination of AC with ceiling fan.Ceiling fans consume as little energy as a 60 watt bulb. Ceiling fans are often used instead of air conditioning, but it’s not necessarily one or the other. Fans produce air currents that carry heat away from the skin, so even air conditioned rooms feel cooler when one is running.
• Use Programmable Thermostat and make sure lamps are not placed to close to thermostats.
• Close your blinds and curtains during the hottest part of the day to block the sun’s natural heat.
• Be sure furniture, rugs , and draperies don’t block central cooling registers. Close cooling vents in unused rooms and keep doors to unused rooms closed.
• To cool your house efficiently, your air conditioner has to be cool. So try to keep it in the shade. An air conditioner exposed to direct sunlight uses 5 percent more energy than a shaded one. If your air conditioner is already in the sun, you can build a simple shade screen for it.
• Don’t block the air flow at the back of the Air Conditioner.

• Don’t switch your thermostat to a higher setting when you first turn it on. It won’t heat your home any faster and it will waste energy when you forget to turn it back down.
• Take advantage of the sun’s natural heat. On sunny days, leave blinds and draperies open to let the sun’s rays warm your home.
• Maintain you’re heating and cooling equipment through a Planned Maintenance Program, which should include filter changes, heat exchanger cleaning,and fan coil cleaning.
• Be sure furniture, rugs or draperies don’t block central heating registers.
• Monitor thermostat settings regularly. Programmable thermostats our an economical investment and cost effective way of conserving energy.
• Utilize ceiling fans where available. Ceiling fans save energy in reverse as this pushes warm air caught near the ceiling down to where you can feel it.

• Toilets are the largest water and sewer user of all fixtures. They also have reputation of leaking so check and adjust your toilets regularly.
• Reduce flushing of the toilet. DO NOT USE THE TOILET AS A TRASH CAN. Use a conveniently located trash can for tissues, gum wrappers, cigarette butts, bugs, diapers, or other things which belong in the trash.
• Take short showers instead of baths and save 5 to 15 gallons of water.
• Don’t leave the water running while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing up.

• Use proper water levels when washing. Run the clothes washer with a full load, matching the water level with the size of the load. A load of laundry uses approximately 50 gallons of water. A front loading washer uses 1/3 the water of a traditional washer.
• When doing laundry make sure you only wash full loads or set your washer for lesser loads.

• Only run the dishwasher when it is full. Load the dishwasher properly to maximize load and ensure efficient water circulation. You can save additional water by scraping dishes instead of pre-rinsing them before placing them in the dishwasher.
• Don’t bother rinsing dishes in the sink. Scrape dishes clean and let the dishwasher do the rest. If washing by hand do not leave the water running while washing.
• Don’t leave water running while cleaning vegetables or preparing food. Put a stopper in the sink.
• Store drinking water in the refrigerator or use ice so you don’t have to leave water running endlessly.
• Reuse dirty water to water plants and vegetation

• Your toilet may have a silent leak. Drop a little food coloring into the tank, wait about 10 to 20 minutes. If food coloring appears in your bowl, you have leak.
• Check faucets and other fixtures for leaks. Even a small drip can waste 1,000 gallons of water per month.

Monitor thermostat settings regularly. Programmable thermostats are an economical investment and cost effective way of conserving energy. A properly programmed thermostat can save a house hold $150 to $180 annually. The following are important Programmable thermostat guidelines:

• Keep the temperature set at its energy savings set-points for long periods of time (at least eight hours), for example, during the day, when no one is at home, and through the night, after bedtime.
• Avoid using the over-ride thermostat function. All thermostats let you temporarily make an area warmer or cooler, without erasing the pre-set programming. This override is cancelled automatically at the next program period. You use more energy (and end up paying more on energy bills) if you consistently “hold” or over-ride the pre-programmed settings.
• Units typically have 2 types of hold features: (1) hold/permanent/vacation; (2) temporary. Avoid using the hold/permanent/vacation feature to manage day to day temperature settings. “Hold” or “vacation” features are best when you’re planning to be away for an extended period. Set this feature at a constant, efficient temperature (i.e. several degrees warmer temperature in summer, several degrees cooler during winter), when going away for the weekend or on vacation. You’ll waste energy and money if you leave the “hold” feature at the comfort setting while you’re away.
• Cranking your unit up to 90 degrees or down to 40 degrees, for example, will not heat or cool your house any faster. Most thermostats, including ENERGY STAR qualified units, begin to hear or cool at a set time, to reach set point temperatures sometime thereafter. Units with adaptive (smart/intelligent) recovery features are an exception to this rule — Adaptive recovery units are constantly calculating the amount of time required to heat or cool the house, so that it reaches that temperature when the homeowner programmed it. By “examining” the performance of the past few days the thermostat can keep track of the seasons. In this way, your house is always at the comfort levels when occupied, but saving the most energy when unoccupied.
• If your programmable thermostat runs on batteries, don’t forget to change the batteries each year. Some units will indicate when batteries must be changed.