My wife and I have been trying to cut back on the budget lately. A summer full of household projects, a vacation, and general “if you want it, buy it” attitude has left us a bit leaner in the bank account. It’s not too bad, we didn’t go into debt, just depleted some of our [...]
It’s been incredibly hot in NW Arkansas over the past few weeks. With temperatures averaging in the mid and upper 90’s each day, my A/C system has been working overtime. I finally relented to lowering the thermostat in the house to 76 degrees. It had been set at 78 degrees.
Add to that the fact that [...]
Here’s another inexpensive and easy tip to implement. Install foam gaskets around electrical outlets. Most exterior walls are built from 2 x 4 lumber which means the walls are only 3.75 inches thick. Your electrical boxes create a void in the wall insulation. I have really deep electrical boxes so there is very little room [...]
In the process of surfing the web for a resource on a post, I ran across the US Household Electricity Report. It’s published by the Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy. The information is old, from 2001, but I found the report interesting nonetheless.
The most interesting piece of information was a table [...]
Something I haven’t done yet in my house is install low-flow faucets and shower heads. To be honest, until I did the research for this post, I wasn’t too worried about it. I knew I was losing too much hot water (and electricity) down the drain, but until I found the following at fypower.org I [...]
We’re considering the purchase of a new computer for family use at home. We currently have an almost 5 year old desktop PC that is showing its age. We’re considering a laptop instead of a desktop primarily for portability, but in my research one of the side benefits I found is that laptops use much [...]
I hope your Memorial Day weekend was a great time to spend with family and friends. My wife, daughters, and I spent the weekend at a family camp at a retreat center about an hour from home. It was a great time to relax and forget about “real” life for a few days.
Before we left, [...]
According to some sources (here), up to 48% of a homes heat gain comes from windows. This will vary greatly depending on the quality of windows in your home as well as the orientation of your house.
Single paned windows will conduct much more heat than double paned windows. Low E windows are one step [...]
Here’s another Low Cost Tip that can help reduce your energy bills. Use your microwave (or the smallest appliance that will get the job done) when cooking.
Heating food in the microwave uses only 20 percent of the energy required by a full-sized oven.
Now I know you can’t cook Thanksgiving dinner in the microwave, but [...]
File this as one of those things that you don’t have to worry about with me — keeping the garage door down. I’ve always been a little nuts about making sure the doors around the house are closed and locked. However, my reasons have more to do with security than with energy savings.
I read somewhere [...]