Green Homes Gainesville | Energy Saving Tips

Live Green

Don't place lamps or TV sets near your air conditioner thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, and causes the air conditioning to run longer than necessary, using more energy.
Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units but not to block the airflow. A unit operating in the shade uses as much as 10% less electricity than the same one operating in the sun.
About 80 to 85% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water. There are two ways to reduce the amount of energy used for washing clothes - use less water and use cooler water. Your clothes will be just as clean as using warm or hot water and you'll save money by not heating water to wash clothes.
Set your thermostat at 68 degrees or lower during the winter months. For each degree you increase the temperature from the recommended setting, you can increase your bill up to 4%.
Check your heating system's filters once a month and clean or replace as needed. Maintaining the system helps it to run longer while using less energy.
Match pan size to element size when cooking. For small pans, use a small burner and for large pans use a large burner. Using the wrong sized element will cause you to use more energy to cook than when the pan size fits the element size.
Clean your dryer's filter after each use. A clean dryer filter will allow your dryer to work more efficiently. Dryer filters full of lint will cause your dryer to work harder and longer; using more energy.