5 Surprising Energy Savings Tips

Did you know that if you turn up your thermostat during winter you can actually save more energy?

Kidding! You can’t. Seriously, though, you’d be surprised with how many things you can do to save energy these days.

Here’s some tactics (that truly work) to consider:

• Stay Married
  This one’s 100% legit. You may feel tempted to think being married makes you more inefficient.
  But it works the reverse because if you and your spouse split, you each need your own place to live and energy to use. Now you shouldn’t stay together just to save energy, but this shows staying married truly saves energy.
  Oh, and this was found by Michigan state researchers who discovered divorced families add 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly.
  It pays to keep your spouse happy!
• Collect Water with a Rain Barrel
  Say your roof is a typical 1,000 square feet. Did you know you can turn that into 600 (yes, 600) gallons of water?
  Rain barrels come in sizes of about 50 gallons at most. So, that’s about 12 of these you’d be able to fill up.
  Instead, collect the water and take showers courtesy of your local weather. Okay, we’re pulling your leg again.
  But you could use that rain water for your lawn or garden. And by the way, companies make systems that repel mosquitoes so you don’t infest your whole yard with them too.
• Pack Your Fridge & Freezer Tightly
  With more space available inside, your fridge and freezer have more cool air floating around. When you open the door, warm air rushes in to take its place.
  So, the more you have packed inside, the less air you have to remove. Small energy savings tip? Yes. But it’s the smart people who do things like this and score real savings.
• Let Your Dishwasher Do All the Work
  Only pre-rinse your dishes when you absolutely need to. You got a dishwasher to clean your dishes for you, so let it do its job.
  Pre-rinsing can cost you up to 20 gallons of water each day you do it. Oh, and make sure you only run your dishwasher when it has a full load.
• Get a Halogen Oven
  Okay, so they’re going to cost more than a conventional convection oven. However, halogen ovens use 75% less energy.
  It’ll take some time for the savings to pay for themselves. But, they’ll score you nice energy savings in the long run.

Surprised?

Which of these tips surprised you most? Some? All? None? If nothing else, they at least stimulate your thinking. Put them to use so you can save energy…and some extra cash too.