Electricity Savings (#5976) | Home Improvement Center

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Electricity Savings (segment #5976)

Turn off the lights. Turn off the lights. We've all heard it a million times. And actually, you should turn off the lights if you're going to leave any room for longer than 10 minutes. But the reality is, your lights only make up about 5% of your electric bill. So, here are some quick tips on how to conserve energy all over your house. You can save energy with your hot water heater by draining a few gallons of water from the tank into a bucket or drain pan each month. Now, you want to do this because a sediment builds up in your tank and makes it hard for your heating element to work.

You can also change your thermostat from 140° to about 110° or 120°. You can do this even if you have a dishwasher because your dishwasher has its own heating element. You can use a ceiling fan to save energy in two different ways. If you live in a cool climate you can use it instead of an air conditioner and save up to 80% on your cooling costs. And you can use it with an air conditioner by turning your thermostat up 2-6 degrees. Now you'll save four to eight percent on each degree, so a 25% savings is a real possibility. Regular light switches are either off or on. But if you replace these with dimmers you can save about 50% on each circuit. And a florescent bulb will put out about four times as much light per watt as an incandescent bulb, so you can save on your lighting also.

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