Improving the Efficiency of Your Home Can Save the Environment and Your Budget

When you decide to go green, one of the first places that you start is in the home. Switching light bulbs, turning off lights not in use, and even turning off devices are easy and effective ways to save energy. However, improving the overall efficiency of your home can essentially lead to more green practices and more green in your wallet. So whether you’ve been looking for ways to cut back on your energy bill for savings or you just want to reduce your carbon footprint in your home, these suggestions ought to come in handy.
Switch to Natural Gas


One of the first steps you can take towards going green and saving money is switching to a natural energy provider. Natural energy is much easier on the environment and can be very budget friendly. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you have the ability to select your energy service provider. By looking through sites such as AlbertaEnergyProviders.com, you’re able to do a comparison search on service providers in the area and their cost for service.

Weatherproofing Your Home

An affordable option for improving the efficiency in your home would be to consider weatherproofing. There are several steps that you can take to help keep the hot or cold air from entering/exiting your home so easily. In turn this means the decreased need for overusing your heating and cooling systems. Some options you have for weatherproofing includes:

·  Plastic – If you have older model windows it is possible that there are cracks that allows for air to easily leave or enter the home. When you’re utilizing your heating or cooling system, this means that they have to work twice as hard to keep the home cool or warm (depending upon the weather). Placing plastic around these windows improves their efficiency, allowing the air to stay in the home.

·  Weather stripping – Your entryways may also have cracks or holes around them that allow for air to leave the home. Applying easy to use weather stripping to them is a great way to make sure that the air you want stays in the house.

·  Caulking – for areas in which plastic and weather stripping won’t work you could always consider caulk. It is an effective tool for closing up holes that lead to the outside.

Having Your Heating/Cooling Systems Maintained

Your heating and cooling systems guzzle a lot of energy to keep the temperature comfortable in your home. If you’ve started to notice that your energy bills are higher than normal and you haven’t increased your consumption, you may want to consider checking the integrity of your heating and cooling systems. It is very possible that they are poorly maintained which could be the reason for increased usage. Here are some areas to check:

·  Air Filters – air filters are necessary to keep the dirt and debris from flying around your home. However, if you don’t properly change them, you could run into efficiency issues as it pertains to your heating and cooling systems. The systems begin to overwork to provide the same level of comfort.

·  Vents – Check the vents in your home. Much like the air filters; the vents also need to be free of debris and dirt to improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system. Depending on the location of your vents they are fairly easy to clean.

·  Age – If you’ve had your furnace for a while it is very possible that it is no longer the most efficient unit to have. As an older machine will have several operating issues that will increase the costs of running the machine and decrease its efficiency. It may be time to consider purchasing a more energy efficient furnace.

There are plenty of ways to go green; however, your home’s efficiency often the best place to start. It can be a key factor helping to preserve energy and help the environment. If you have not done any of the above discussed tasks in your home in a while, you may want to consider adding them to your list. As you tackle each of these tasks you will begin to see a difference in the temperature in your home, the amount of energy you consume, and the overall costs of your energy bill as a whole.
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