by Kaitlyn Hamilton

Created on: September 04, 2008

Today's energy prices are becoming quite alarming. We use energy in our homes, offices, and our vehicles. If we follow even a few of the following tips, then our energy bills are sure to be reduced.

ENERGY SAVINGS IN THE HOME OR OFFICE

1. Turn off the water heater if you will be away for several days or on vacation. It will only take a short period of time for it to heat up once it is turned back on.

2. Take shorter showers and try taking a warm shower instead of using steaming hot water.

3. Turn down the temperature on your hot water heater.

4. Be sure to turn off the water while you brush your teeth. Gallons of water each week are wasted if you leave the faucet running.

5. Replace your hot water heater with a tankless model. You'll never run out of hot water and you will save a lot of money because you won't be constantly heating an enormous tank of water.

6. If you only have a small load of laundry, then save it until you have more items to add. You can also mix colors if you wash in cold water, which will also save on energy. Unless your clothes are heavily soiled, then be sure you use a shorter wash cycle.

7. Don't rinse your dishes before putting them in your dishwasher, especially if you have one of the newer models that have a hard food disposal and a water filtration system. Only wash dishes on the sanitize cycle if you need to thoroughly disinfect the items inside. You can also use a paper towel to wipe out excess food into the garbage before putting dishes in the dishwasher.

8. Replace your old dishwasher with an energy star qualified model. I'm especially fond of Bosch dishwashers. Not only are they the quietest on the market, but they clean extremely well, use a condensation dry instead of heated dry, and they use less water than any other dishwasher on the market.

9. Replace your washing machine with a high efficiency front load model. Again, I prefer Bosch since they are the most energy efficient on the market at only 10.5 gallons of water maximum per 4.0 cubic foot wash. Older top loading models use 40 to 55 gallons of water per 3.2 cubic foot wash. If you do two or more loads of laundry per week, then a new front load washer and dryer set with pedestals will pay for itself in about three years. This is even more important if you are on a septic system. If you wash 3 loads a week in a top loader, then you can be adding over 150 gallons to your septic tank a week. The front loaders or high efficiency top loaders such as the Whirlpool Cabrio or Maytag

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