Some Simple Ways to Save Money at Home

Price trends are steadily rising for many things that affect how you live. Significant changes are found in healthcare costs, the price of food, energy and almost anything else you need in your daily life. There's not a lot that you can do to cut back on your insurance coverage premiums, but you can do a lot to keep your home's energy expenditures down. Most of the time, you won't even need to spend a dime to start on the savings. Follow these easy suggestions and start saving money right away.

Close your fireplace damper. When you don't have a fire in your fireplace, close the damper. This will keep warm air from escaping out the chimney.

Wash your clothes in cold water. About 90% of the energy used in washing clothes is in heating up the water. You can eliminate this unnecessary expenditure of energy by using cold water to wash your clothes. Only use warm water if you're washing whites. Even then you can use cold most of the time if they are not too grubby. Modern detergents do a pretty good job in cold water so it's not like in the old days.

Make sure your dishwasher is full before you run it. The dishwasher accounts for around 2% of your home's overall energy usage. Don't run partial loads. Wait until it is as full as possible before turning it on.

Tighten leaky faucets. A leaky faucet can waste a huge number of gallons of water over the course of a year. What's more, if the leak is from the hot side you are sending more money literally down the drain. Heating your water typically weighs in at around 10-15% of household energy costs. Those constant drips add up to big expenses and they are entirely avoidable.

Use sensible window treatments to regulate your temperature inside the home. During the summer, close your south and west facing curtains or blinds. Keeping direct sunlight out of the house will reduce the burden on your air conditioner and will make your rooms cooler. During the winter, do the opposite. Open up on sunny days to let the sun's rays warm your home. In the evening, be sure to close them again to keep the warm air in.

Install a showerhead with a restricted flow design. It will save water and also the energy to heat up the water. You can purchase one for less than $20 and installation is nothing more complicated than opening and reclosing a jar lid.

In the summer, set your air conditioning thermostat to 78 degrees. You can save quite a bit by raising the temperature from 72 to 78 degrees. Your air conditioner is probably your home's biggest energy user, so even small improvements can offer big benefits.

Run exhaust fans only when necessary. Your bathroom's vent fans can expel and replace all the air in your home in as little as an hour! Letting the exhaust fans run for extended periods will blow your heated or cooled air from your house and replace it with outdoor air. This will increase your heating and cooling expense and that is entirely without benefit.

Clean your refrigerator coils. If the coils are dirty, your refrigerator will build up excess heat. Pull your refrigerator out from the wall twice a year and inspect the condenser coils and clean them. Your refrigerator can account for over 6 percent of home energy use, so keep it working efficiently to keep costs lower.

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