Happy Earth Day from DBS Residential Solutions!
Happy Earth Day from DBS Residential Solutions! Here at DBS not only are we foundation repair experts, but we help make homes more comfortable and energy efficient as an authorized dealer with Dr. Energy Saver . At DBS we aim to better the lives of everyone we come into contact with so as the experts in home energy efficiency and comfort we would like to share a few tips to make everyone’s Earth Day just a little more efficient. Though we do offer a free home energy audit with estimate as well as different solutions to help with insulation, windows, ice damming and more in Minnesota and Wisconsin, we thought it would be useful to provide four energy saving tips you can do at home yourself!
So here it is! The list of four energy saving tips for the do it yourselfers out there.
1. Change Out Your Home’s Light Bulbs
If a complete lightbulb makeover in your home is not in the budget right now begin with the lights that you use most often. We recommend you use LEDs or CFLs. LEDs are initially more costly but are far better in the long run. These bulbs use less energy themselves in the long run and by doing this you also won’t have your bulbs giving off up to 380 degrees of heat that your air conditioning will have to compensate for, costing you even more money.
When picking out a lightbulb it is also important to keep in mind any dimmable fixtures you might have, brightness of bulbs, and the temperature of the light. When looking at dimmable CFLs or LEDs they may cost more, but it is important to look at the cost of the bulb over its lifetime which can provide a significant savings. As far as size, wattage is no longer the measurement to base your purchase on, you now want to look at lumens. Lumens are the measure of the actual output of light from the bulb. A 600 lumen bulb will equate to 60 watts for incandescent bulbs or 11 watts with LEDs. Temperature of light is also important if you wish to avoid too blue or too orange of a light cast in your home. Light bulbs have a scale measuring their “Degrees Kelvin” or “K” on their packaging. As a general rule we suggest avoiding lights with a rating of 4000K or more, this can lead to an upsetting blue color cast in your home. You’ll generally be happy staying below 3000K with 2700K being the nice soft white light temperature to aim for.
2. Update Your Appliances
The energy saver label on new appliances provide important information. This label shows how this model compares to others available in regards to its energy usage. We recommend buying the most efficient model you can find, especially when it comes to appliances that are used constantly like your refrigerator which is constantly running. When you do replace your old non-efficient models make sure you dispose of them properly instead of using it elsewhere. If you move the old inefficient refrigerator to the garage to be used you’re going to be using more energy than you were before!
3. Improve Your Water Conservation
Here in Minnesota and Wisconsin where water is plentiful we don’t generally concern ourselves with water preservation as much as they do in the Southwestern parts of the U.S. While it is always good to save water for the welfare of our planet there are also reasons to save water for your personal benefit as well. Conserving water that is heated (usually from a sink faucet or showerhead) will help to save you money on the energy used to heat the water. By using low flow shower heads and faucet aerators you can really cut back on water usage and save money in the process.
4. Recycle as Much as You Can!
This tip doesn't exactly save energy in your home, but it is a great habit to get into to make better use of the limited resources our planet holds. It can seem overwhelming to get started recycling, but with most places moving toward single stream recycling you don’t have to sort the recycling yourself. Doing this will reduce the amount of garbage you have every week and once you have a system of recycling in place you’ll wonder why you hadn’t started earlier. If you’re feeling extra ambitious try working toward a habit of composting. I may have lost half of you after reading that sentence, but having a small compost collection in your kitchen that gets dumped in a garden or compost heap outside can help your garbage become less wet and smelly. Try it for a month and see the improvement it makes.
Working toward an energy efficient home is important in helping reduce your use of our resources while saving money and making your home more comfortable. After you’ve made these changes and wish to further improve the efficiency and comfortability of your home give us a call! We provide a free home energy audit with estimate that helps determine how your home is losing energy and what we can do to help you out. If you’re having problems with cold and drafty rooms, rooms that are too hot, high energy bills, ice damming, or other energy concerns we’re here to help. We serve homes from Ely to Duluth, from Ashland to Nisswa and everywhere in between. We want to wish you a happy Earth Day and hope to meet you soon to determine how our home energy solutions can better the life of you and your family.
