4 Ways to Save Money on Heating and Air Conditioning Costs

When I started looking for ways to cut the costs, I thought of a lot of obvious things.  Turn off the lights when your not in the room, unplug appliances when not in use, keep the AC a degree or 2 higher then normal, and turn off the TV and radio when your not watching or listening attentively.  But it just wasn’t enough.  we could do more and better and save more money.

I started doing some research of ways to cut the cost of utilities and I realized there are a lot of things I was NOT doing that could save me a ton of money.

1. Use windows to give you light in your home.  Open your windows in the mornings.  Avoid using the lights unless you really need them and only when you are in the area you need the light.  This will make your home warmer using the sun in the winter as well.
2. Take shorter showers or take navy showers!  Have a timer in the bathroom and have a competition going to see who can beat their shortest time.  It is fun trying new ways of showering to cut the time.  Turn down the temperature of the shower to not use as much gas to heat the water.  Navy Showers are another option. They are showers that use the minimum water amount and help to conserve hot water.  You turn on the water and get wet, then turn off the water and lather up and turn on the water to rinse.  This helps to conserve water.  If you are in a house where you have to pay for water and sewer and such, this will save you on more levels then just heat.
3. Do your baking, cooking, and using other appliances as much as possible after peak hours and when it cools down a bit outside.  We used to have laundry day now we do it two nights instead of 1 day and night.  This helps to conserve our power in peak times to only needs.  Most areas have different prices on peak times as well, so it saves a bunch this way.  I bake now in the evenings.  So when I bake bread and muffins and such, I make then after the kids are in bed.  I also cook  as much as I can the night before or wait as late as I can to cook dinner.  This takes a bit of extra planning to do it this way but we were able to cut $13.00 off our gas and electric bill this last month by doing these things.
4. Make sure you have insulation – Insulation makes a huge difference on the functionality of your home.  It keeps in the warm and cool when you need it and keeps out what you don’t want.  Be sure your home is insulated correctly.  You will immediately see a difference in your comfort level while still using minimum heating and AC

These things have made a huge difference in our energy usage and we have been saving us a lot.

You may also enjoy these other ways to save money at home!

Do you have any Ideas of ways to cut the cost of your gas and electric bill??  What do you do everyday to save?

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