Home Energy Savings:
More Unusual Tips to Help You Save Cash

Following are a few tips for home energy savings you probably haven't heard much about.

• Can your heat pump breathe?
  If you have a heat pump, be sure the area around it is free from debris. Sticks, stones, leaves and mud or dirt can clog the machinery and decrease its efficiency.

• Take advantage of free oxygen - via cross-ventilation
  When you have cooler days or nights, open up your house windows (using screens) to get some cross ventilation breezes moving. This simply means to open windows on opposite sides of the house.

  You will bring in fresh air while moving out stale air, and cool your house down considerably. If your temp at night is 75 degrees or below, you can cross ventilate. If the temperature reaches to the 80s or above during the day, close the windows in the morning to keep the cooler air indoors.

  Home energy savings + fresh air = happy campers!

• Just Vent!
  Be sure (if you use a furnace or heat pump) that your vent covers are open and uncovered. Sometimes things get inadvertently placed onto the vent and your air circulation suffers.

  Also, if you have an unused room or two that you do not need to keep at house temperature, consider purchasing the magnetic vent covers that attach to the surrounding metal plate. This will cause the warm or cool air to reroute to the rooms you use the most.

  If you have furniture over a vent, purchase a plastic vent director (or rig a homemade one) to blow the air out from under the piece of furniture. These very effective contraptions are quite inexpensive.

• Fireplace Tips
  Do you have a direct vent fireplace? These are the type that do not require a chimney, but are simply vented through a hole in the outside wall.

  We have one, but have opted not to use it because of the high price of natural gas in our area. After some time, it became apparent that HUGE amounts of cold air were leaking through the opening into the house like an open door! The living area was COLD in the winter and quite uncomfortable.

  The solution? A simple plastic window wrap purchased at a home improvement store for about 50 cents!

  It keeps hot air out in the summer, and freezing air out in the winter. Should we choose to use the fireplace, we would simply remove it and then seal it back up when we are ready to turn it off. I venture to guess we have saved HUNDREDS on our electric bill with this hint alone!

• Buy Energy Star appliances
  When your current appliances give up the ghost (or if you are buying new appliances), consider Energy Star for your home. You will save not only energy, but resources as well. Your dishwasher, for example, will likely use less water, run more efficiently, and perhaps even be quieter than your previous purchase.

Click here for more great energy saving tips - and stretch those dollars until they scream for mercy!

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