Are You As Energy Efficient As You Could Be?

This could very well be a silly question, but unfortunately many of us, if not all, tend to forget to turn off the lights when we aren’t even using them.

Can you count how many times you’ve left the light on in the hallway overnight? How about the heater or television? I know I’ve certainly been guilty of all of the above and quite frankly, it’s difficult to kick the habits all together. In fact, many of us probably don’t even realize that unplugging our appliances when not in use can help conserve energy as well.

Forgetfulness is not a disease, but it accompanies being human. With that said, it’s important to make changes in our home that we have absolute control over – changes that don’t depend solely on our memory. It’s the combination of our efforts and positive purchases that make a difference in our overall savings and expenditures.

Making the house itself as efficient as we can is something we have power over. For instance, many of our appliances can be replaced with energy efficient appliances. These appliances can include refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, and light bulbs.

Investing in energy efficient appliances can help with reducing the cost of your bill. How much money will you save? That will probably depend on how much the appliances cost, how efficient they are, and how long they’ll last. Needless to say, the act itself of purchasing energy efficient appliances is pretty admirable and most likely beneficial for the pocket and the environment.

The other thing to note is that insulation can be an important factor that affects the cost of your bill. If a home is not well-insulated, the home will require a lot more energy to heat and cool; therefore, it’s important to check your insulation and make necessary changes if needed. Weather stripping is something simple that can be done to help prevent cracks, holes, and gaps from allowing cold wind drafts to come in and heat from escaping.

Doing an energy audit of your home is something that is beneficial for you. Applying cost effective measures such as changing appliances and remembering the best you can to turn off lights when not in use is also a plus since every little thing adds up.

If you’re interested in saving money related to energy use by going solar, then you’re probably already taking action in some if not all of these areas already; however, it isn’t necessary to do all or any of these things prior to installing solar.

You can take advantage of solar benefits without making any changes to the home and your habits as long as your numbers are assessed for suitability among current electricity cost, needed power, and how much energy the solar panels can generate for your particular home.

Remember – the goal is typically to save money and reduce carbon dioxide emission. As long as your house is ideal for solar and your needs are met, changes are not necessary prior or post installation to enjoy the benefits.

However, it has been noted by home-owners that once they go solar, they end up motivated to do more energy conservation improvements to their home. In fact, in many cases, the money that is saved from installing a solar system helps to pay for the added energy improvements. Pretty cool, huh?

Conclusion: Is it necessary to perform energy conservation work prior to installing solar panels?

Nope. It’s not necessary, but you can if you want to. Ideally, it’s probably best to have the solar panels installed first in order to start saving energy right away since the savings from solar is more significant than installing energy efficient appliances. Meanwhile, you can try your best to remember shutting off the lights. Once your energy savings from solar begin to build up, you can use that savings to purchase your energy efficient appliances. Does that sound like a sunny and logical order? You betcha.

Remember: it definitely doesn’t hurt to apply all energy efficient actions. In fact, they all help add to the piggy bank over time and a happier Earth, but the order of the actions can help save even more time and money if calculated correctly.