You should always be looking for ways to cut costs. Shopping the sales, clipping coupons out of magazines, withholding on ‘nonessentials’…
Whether you’re running a business or just focused on keeping up with your home, you’re always worried about superfluous spending.
But no matter how much you cut corners, it can’t compare to these easy adjustments, which put THOUSANDS back in your pocket.
1. Insulation
Did you know that 21% of annual energy consumption is attributed to heating and cooling?
Did you also know that 20-30% of the heating and air conditioning produced is lost before it can affect the temperature?
In most cases, this is due to poor insulation.
When there are cracks, holes, or deficiencies in the pipes that carry the modulated air through the building, large amounts of air are lost in spaces that don’t require heating or cooling.
Lucky for you, this is easy to fix. Poor insulation is often simply a biproduct of the age of the airducts and can be remedied by finding and covering the places where air is escaping.
You can do this on your own if you’re feeling like MacGyver, but it would also be worth the long term savings to call a professional to do it for you.
According to the national average heating and cooling costs ($1,100), you could save $330 annually just by checking your insulation.
2. Recycle
Did you know you can be paid to recycle?
Depending on where you work, there are many state and city policies in place that provide compensation in the form of tax forgiveness for companies that consistently recycle.
In addition to this, there are several organizations that pay you to recycle.
Of course you can always resell electronics and bigger things like furniture rather than throwing it out, which in itself is a form of recycling, but you can also go through companies like Recyclebank (recyclebank.com) which provide you with monetary rewards for recycling.
With this company, you simply sign up for a membership and record your recycling, and in return you earn points that translate to discounts, details, and savings.
3. Keep up with filters
Similar to insulation, filters are a huge source of energy—and therefore monetary—loss.
The filters on washing machines, dish washers, and air vents can accumulate dust and debris that blocks proper functioning. Not only does this make for impure air and water, but it also makes your systems work harder than necessary, therefore costing you more than necessary.
By keeping filters clean and replacing them when necessary (air filters should be replaced every 90 days, washing machines and dishwasher filters should usually be replaced annually) you can save another 20% on your energy bill every month.
That’s another $200 saved for the average home!
4. Install energy efficient lighting
This one is a big saver for everyone, but it can be a particularly big help in business buildings, which are constantly lit, usually by large quantities of industrial lights.
LED and CFL lights only use 20-25% of the energy standard lightbulbs use. That’s 75% of your lighting bill cut away every month.
In the average home, that saves you about $525 annually. In a big office space, you can double that number.
5. Turn things off
The last way to save money with efficiency is simply by turning things off. Invest in power strips for all of your outlets, especially in an office building.
The average home looses over $100 annually just on standby energy drain, which happens when things are left plugged in even when not in use.
When you leave your phone charger in the wall, even when it isn’t plugged into your phone, it is sucking away energy, and that means it’s costing you money.
But, if all your plugs are put into a power strip rather than directly into the wall, you can simply flip a switch and turn everything off at once, saving you money daily.
Leaving lights—even energy efficient lights—and air conditioning on at all hours can also drain your funds.
When you leave a room, make sure to flip the lights off, and if the temperature outside allows or you are leaving the house or office for more than a few hours, turn your heating and cooling off.
You can save over $300 annually just by being conscious of turning things off.
If you use all of these tips, you can save roughly $1,455 annually! And, if you have a larger home or are applying this to your business, that number only goes up.
In other words, you can save your green by going green!
