Running a family, keeping everyone happy and juggling all the other responsibilities that come with keeping a home can be stressful indeed. On top of that, of course, there’s also the major need of paying close attention to finances, especially ensuring that you stay in-line with a budget and try to keep your bills as low as possible.
When it comes to household appliances, especially things like fridges, freezers, dishwashers and drying machines, keeping your energy consumption rate down can have a really positive impact on your bills. As for ways to how to do it? Here are seven key ways to lower your families energy consumption.
Only Replace with Manufacturer Recommended Parts
We know it’s tempting to cut corners and save up-front costs fixing a broken appliance by replacing it with cheaper parts produced by little-known manufacturers but it’s likely to cause more problems in the long-run. Replacing your machine with parts not recommended by the manufacturer can cause its energy efficiency levels to suffer and suddenly see you using (and wasting) far more with the appliance than you would have done.
Maximise Usage
If you’ve purchased an expensive household appliance like a fridge, freezer and washing machine it makes sense to maximize your usage of these things as much as possible by paying close attention to capacity. Washing on full loads means you do it less frequently, keeping a freezer and fridge fully-stocked means you waste less energy on chilling compartments with nothing in them.
Cleaning
Setting up a schedule to clean your appliances, making sure you stick to it and keep your appliances thoroughly clean and free of debris or other residual substances that could effect their performance is crucial. Maybe you could evenly distribute such chores throughout your family to take the load off you too.
Off-Peak Hours
Cooking and preparing food with energy-hungry microwaves, ovens and stoves can be done off-peak if you have a flexible schedule. This can really maximise your energy output and save costs by doing these activities away from the most common hours. The same can be said for clothes washing and drying as well as using air conditioning units too.
Positioning
By cleverly positioning appliances designed to keep things cool, like fridges, freezers and air conditioning units, in cooler places in your house, you can help improve their intended purpose while keeping the amount of energy they use reduced too. Perhaps a utility room or well-ventilated area of the house can help wish washing machines and dryers also.
Cold Water
Using cold water, whenever possible, is a really neat trick that can help cut energy usage in your washing machine. Making this switch can sometimes result in cutting usage almost in half as the amount required to heat water before cleaning can lead to more energy being units being required despite cleaning your clothes no more effectively or thoroughly as a cold water wash might do.
Doors
Paying closer attention to the doors on appliances like fridges and freezer is another important way in which you can reduce energy consumption and help keep costs down.
The longer doors are open for the more air is lost from these appliances and the more energy is required to help cool air and get it circulating effectively again.
Hopefully these simple yet practical tips can help you keep on top of your household budget while not comprising on the many benefits that household appliances bring.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Have you tried any of these ways to try to cut down on your family’s energy consumption?
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