10 Low Cost, High Impact Tips to Slowing Climate Change

10 Low Cost, High Impact Tips to Slowing Climate Change

Maybe you love to do your part to reduce emissions or to slow climate change but don’t have a large amount of cash just sitting around. Don’t despair, here we discuss 10 low cost tips and techniques that can have a large impact on your household’s energy usage and CO2 emissions.

You have probably heard about some of the more expensive methods to reducing your energy consumption – making your house more ‘green’. Solar, geothermal, heat exchangers, water reclamation, and rainwater harvesting to name a few. In many cases, all of these are good approaches to reducing your energy consumption, but there are also lower cost tips and techniques that can have fairly significant impacts as well. This is one of those cases where ‘the more you spend’ does not necessarily mean ‘the more you save’.

The trick is to find items that are low cost with big impact. On our Calculate & Plan page we’ll discuss how you can find these items for your specific household, but we’ll also share the 10 most common below.

1. Turn off idle electrical appliancesWe all have many electrical appliances in our households. There are the obvious ones like the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the TV, the lights, etc. But, there are also a lot of powered appliances that we forget about. Things like the cable box, the wifi router, the computer monitor, the air conditioning, etc. Turn off electrical appliances that tend to be ‘on’ 24×7 (or a large chunk of the day). They may not draw a lot of power, but if they are drawing power around the clock it adds up fast. Some of these can’t be turned off (refrigerator), but some can. Typical items include computer monitors, cable routers, wifi routers, DVDs/DVRs, TVs, radios, re-charging stations, lights, etc.

   In our house, we have two computer monitors. If we leave them on 24×7, they will use 735kWh annually. Ironically, that is more energy than used by our clothes dryer which uses 697kWh annually. The items that are on 24×7 add up!

2. Conserve water in the showerIf you take the water footprint calculator, you’ll probably find that one of the biggest water hogs in our households is the shower. If you are like me, it’s so easy to let the minutes slip by while relaxing in a nice warm shower. Beyond installing a low flow shower head, you can decrease your water consumption by taking a shorter shower or by turning off the water while shaving, shampooing hair, etc.

   For each minute that you have the shower turned on, 2.5 gallons (with low flow shower head) or 5 gallons (with standard shower head) of water goes down the drain.

3. Conserve water in the kitchenHow often do you simply let the water run in the kitchen sink? Whether washing food, washing your hands or washing dishes, you’d be amazed at how much water simply runs down the drain without even touching the food, hands or dishes. Either use a stopper (or bowl) when washing or turn off the water at moments when you’re not actually using it.

   With a low flow kitchen faucet, you lose 1.5 gallons of water per minute, but a standard kitchen faucet will waste 7 gallons per minute!

4. Turn off the furnace when not needed.For many of us, our houses sit empty for many hours of the day – or maybe rooms/sections sit empty. There is no need to keep those rooms at full ‘comfort’ warmth during those empty periods. Get a $25 programmable thermostat at Home Depot to automatically turn off the furnace when not needed.

   The US Department of Energy estimates that you can save 5% to 15% on your electricity bill if you lower your thermostat by 10-15 degrees for an 8 hour period each day.

5. Turn down the temperature to reduce furnace usageIn addition to getting the programmable thermostat, reduce the ‘comfort’ temperature by a few degrees. It may seem cold at first, but you’ll quickly get used to it – especially if you put on another layer of clothing (sweatshirt, sweats, socks, slippers, etc.).

   According to Bill Prindle, who is a VP at ICF, “The rule of thumb is that you can save about 3% on your heating bill for every degree that you set back your thermostat” full time.

6. Only use the AC if absolutely necessaryDuring those warm summer months open windows and use a fan for air circulation (yes, a fan will draw electrical power as well, but only a fraction of what an air conditioner draws).

   A large window air conditioning unit will require 33kWh per day (running 24 hours/day).
7. Block out the heat (sun)You’d be amazed at how much heat comes in through our windows with direct sunlight. If you close the blinds / drapes you’ll reduce the heat transferred into the house and hence reduce the need for air conditioning.

   Blackout curtains and shades will reduce the amount of heat transferred through a window by as much as 24% allowing you to save on cooling in the summer.

8. Recycle, recycle, recycleRecycle everything allowed – this will reduce the amount of new raw materials that are needed to produce the packaging of our food and product purchases. However, different cities have different recycling plans so it’s good to be educated on what is allowed or what will be accepted.

   Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil and 7,000 gallons of water according to Leah Thorpe. She has a great page full of recycling facts and figures.

9. Turn off your gas or oil boiler in the summer monthsIf you have a gas or oil boiler, turn it off completely in the summer months. We’re not talking about turning off the thermostat, we’re talking about turning off the boiler itself. If you don’t, it will run periodically to keep the water in the boiler warm – no need to keep the water in boiler warm when you are not needing heat!

   Inactive boilers, especially those that were previously used to heat your hot water supply, can save 200-300 gallons of fuel in the summer alone.

10. Keep cold air outJust as we want to keep warm air out in the summer, we want to keep cold air out in the winter. By keeping the cold air out, we are running our furnace/boiler less. Close up holes and cracks where drafts or cold air can creep into your house.

    According to an Energy Star article, most homes in the United States don’t have enough insulation and have significant air leaks. In fact, if you added up all the leaks, holes and gaps in a typical home’s envelope, it would be the equivalent of having a window open every day of the year!

    Energy Star also has a great infographic showing common air leak areas:

    

    Common air leaks in the home from Energy Star

You’ll see 3 general themes above: Turn off if not in use, insulate (prevent inside air from going out and vice versa), and recycle/reuse whenever possible.

Hopefully these tips, techniques and lifestyle changes will provide great energy savings (and lower utility bills). For more information on how to dig deeper check out our Where to Start page.