4 Energy Savings Tips You May Not Use

All right energy savings lovers…there’s more tips for saving energy than you have time to read. Not all of them are necessarily ones you should follow either.

For now, here’s a few unusual ones that you absolutely should follow to save energy you have no real chance of saving otherwise:

Pack Your Fridge and Freezer Tightly

When you open either your freezer or fridge, what happens? Warm air rushes in. Cool air rushes out. Then, your fridge and freezer will have to spend time replacing that cool air. That’s why your parents always hollered at you to close the door to your fridge or freezer when you were a kid.

How do you protect against losing energy that way?

By packing your fridge, and especially your freezer, tightly. With your fridge, you do want to relax on that a little because you want that cool air to be able to circulate. However, you can pack your freezer tightly. Also, the simple fact that the items are packed closely touching one another helps keep them all cool.

Clear Away Your In-House Vents

You may have a vent releasing oven and kitchen exhaust. No need to worry about that one for our purposes here (though you may want to clear it anyway). For the rest of your vents from your heating or cooling system, make sure they’re all open and unblocked. Closing one vent here and there actually reduces efficiency because that makes it harder to circulate air throughout your entire home. The same applies if your vents are physically blocked.

Put an End to “Vampire Power”

Video game consoles, smartphones, TVs, and even washers and driers, can consume energy even when they’re plugged in but not operating. Some continue to draw power so you can start them up quick next time. Others have chargers that continue to charge, even when they shouldn’t. It’s specific to the device or appliance.

You can get special smart surge protectors today that turn your devices off automatically when not in use.

Use LEDs Wherever Possible

Your home shouldn’t have any incandescents anymore. You should have all CFLs by now. LEDs don’t offer as much energy savings over CFLs as CFLs do over incandescents. But they still offer a nice upgrade. Plus, LEDs are coming down in price.

They simply make sense to use wherever possible. Occasionally, some electric providers also offer special deals on these because they know you save energy on them, which in turn reduces their own costs.

You may not think of any of these tips as your first options for saving energy, but they nevertheless help you save.