Save Money and Energy - Adjust Your Thermostat

Maintaining a comfortable temperature level in your home is the biggest hitter on your energy bills. Did you know that your heating and cooling accounts for around 45% of your total utility cost? The easiest and most cost effective advice I can give you is simply adjusting your thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter.

This suggestion probably sounds obvious to most but many are unwilling to even consider making a small adjustment. I'm not expecting anyone to be uncomfortable in their own home, but you can save 3% per degree in the winter and 3-4% per degree in the summer. Now 2 or 3 degrees is hard to physically notice but can reduce your energy consumption throughout the year considerably. How about a 6-10% yearly savings, are you willing to consider a small bump now?

Another thing to consider is installing a programmable thermostat. You can program these thermostats to automatically change the desired temperature of your home while you are away at work or on vacation effectively saving you money. Of course you could do this yourself before leaving but the possibility of forgetting is always there.

A programmable thermostat is a great cost effective solution and will easily pay for itself in less than a year. You won't have to be uncomfortable when you get home because your smart new thermostat will have made an automatic adjustment and started working towards your desired temperature before you get home.

There are of course a wide variety of programmable thermostats ranging from inexpensive to highly advanced and very costly. You can get the job done with a very basic version found at any home improvement store. Anyone can switch out a thermostat even if you aren't the advanced DIY type. Thermostats run off of low voltage so there's no need to worry about electric shock, just follow the provided instructions and your upgrade will be done in less than 10 minutes.

Very important notice of extreme money and energy waste

Keep in mind that cranking your thermostat way up or down doesn't actually make your system heat or cool any faster, so adjust your thermostat in small increments. In fact, if you have a heat pump installed and you crank the heat way up, it may actually turn on the backup or emergency heat which can turn on heat strips and unnecessarily jack your electric bill up costing you money and wasting energy.

Autor: Bradley C. Williams Bradley C. Williams
Level: Basic PLUS
Brad is an internet marketer from the mountains of North Carolina with a strong desire to make people more aware of energy waste. He hopes ... ...

Brad Williams is an internet marketer with a focus on cutting energy consumption and waste while bringing alternative energy sources to the forefront. Please stop by his website http://www.magnetpowergenerator.com/

Added: September 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Solar Energy As the Best Renewable Energy

Are you familiar with the term "solar energy"? It can be defined as the radiant light and heat from the sun that man has gathered, stored and then converted into useful source of renewable energy. It has been harnessed by humans since the olden times thru a wide variety of constantly evolving technologies that has been developed for thousands of years.

Although solar energy is intermittent, that is, it is not available 24 hours a day it is still virtually an unlimited source of energy. This past century the usage of this kind of renewable energy has been patronized mostly by nature lovers and environment friendly individuals. It belong to the group of renewable energy sources since scientifically its source cannot be exhausted unlike other sources of energy like coal and oil that once consumed it can never be used again.

As of the latest, only a fraction of the people here on earth makes good use of renewable solar energy. Development of this energy has been dynamic this past decade and since the late 1990s thousands of people are already using this kind of energy.

But thousands of people are but a minuscule amount compared to billions of people around the world that do not or can not make use of this renewable energy source. The United States Government is one of the governments that make it a point to push thru with this kind of alternative energy source since it upholds the policy of finding alternative and renewable sources of energy.

Renewable solar energy is converted into electrical charges by meats of heat engines popularly known as "photovoltaics." It is gathered by using "solar panels" made up of solar cells that absorb the sunlight. It is then stored into solar energy containers called "solar batteries" for it to be used at a further time.

Today, this renewable energy source has been classified into two kinds. First is the active energy gathering and the second one is the passive energy gathering. The former refers to energy gathering techniques that primarily involve machinery and equipment in gathering vast quantities of sunlight.

The latter refers to using solar panels during daytime without any help of any machine. Passive solar energy gathering involves a limited amount of solar energy gathered, unlike the active one.

Autor: Joseph Ting Y. S. Joseph Ting Y. S.
Level: Basic PLUS
Hello, thanks for stopping by my bio. I'm regular 19 years old college student. My major is Computer Science however, my college offer a course ... ...

About the Author:
Joseph Ting Y. S. thank you for reading the article. For more information about Renewable Energy, take a look at Renewable Energy Products Review to check out which renewable energy product is worth the money or check out how to build your own renewable energy generator at home. Find out now: http://RenewableEnergy4Home.info

(c) Copyright - Joseph Ting Y. S. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Added: September 3, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Install Low Flow Shower Heads and Toilets - Save Water and Money

Did you know that low flow shower heads use between 1.6 - 2.6 gallons per minute while old shower heads use 2.6 - 5.2 gallons per minute? Probably a silly question to ask, but the most surprising part about these stats is that you can't actually tell a difference in the water pressure.

Now I realize that most everybody takes showers now days due to convenience, but some people enjoy taking baths instead of showers on occasion or maybe even frequently. Truth is few people think about how much more water usage is involved to fill up the tub.

I know that I'm not going to talk you into never filling your bathtub again but just so you are aware, the average person uses 78 gallons of water every time they take a bath? When you compare that to a 10 minute shower with a low flow head that uses only 16 gallons, now what do you think? Don't forget, you are not just wasting water but the electricity or gas it took to heat that water too, not to mention the sewage or waste water bill that goes along with it.

So in essence if you have city water, you're paying for bathing in 3 different ways. You pay for the water itself, the electricity or natural gas to heat the water used, and you're paying for the sewage when the water goes down the drain.

I aim to simply make you aware of possible resource wastes and while you are putting some real effort into saving water and money, check your toilet's gallon per flush or (GPF). You may have an older toilet that uses 7, 5, or 3.5 GPF while the new water saving standard is 1.6 GPF. You can even get a dual flush version that uses either 1.6 or 0.8 GPF depending on; well we'll just say #1 or #2. A dual flush toilet will easily save you up to $100 per year on water and sewage or waste water bills.

Do you have a leaky faucet?

If you do, you should be aware that one drip per second can add up to 165 gallons per month. To better put this into perspective, 165 gallons is more than the average person uses in two weeks. With this in mind you will want to fix your leaky faucet as soon as possible since waiting can cost you more than a new shinny one.

Autor: Bradley C. Williams Bradley C. Williams
Level: Basic PLUS
Brad is an internet marketer from the mountains of North Carolina with a strong desire to make people more aware of energy waste. He hopes ... ...

Bradley C. Williams is a successful internet marketer with a focus on cutting energy consumption and waste while bringing alternative energy sources to the forefront. He would like to invite you to http://www.everyalternative.com/ to learn more about renewable energy sources. Please also visit http://www.profitlancecompanion.com/ to see how he got started in internet marketing.

Added: September 2, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/