With Winter in full swing, doing a few things will help to keep your St. George heating bills down. Follow the following tips and your heating bills should be much less of a burden. There are actually quite a few ways you can save money — in all parts of your home. Check out these tips to lower your heating bills in St. George.
Tips For The Oven
When you have something cooking and want to check on it, you don’t have to open the oven door. Instead, turn on the oven light and check on the status of your food through the window. When you open the oven door, that can lower the temperature inside the oven by up to 25 degrees. Then you’ll have to use that much more energy to heat the oven back up. Another tip for oven use is to cook multiple things at the same time.
Tips For The Stove
When you use the stove for cooking, make sure that you are using a pan that is the same size as the heating element. Doing this will make it so more of the heat gets to the pan with less heat being lost into the surrounding air. For example, using a six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner wastes more than 40 percent of the energy.
You can get better and more efficient heating by cleaning the burners and reflectors too. Buying new reflectors will save you money over time. The microwave is another cooking option that can save energy in your home — up to 50 percent less than a conventional oven.
Tips For The Fridge
Your fridge works hard to keep your food cold. They are one of the biggest energy users in the home. This one is pretty simple. Keep the fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible. You are trying not to let much of that cold air out if you can. What you might not realize is that you should open the door once and do everything you need to do. This is more efficient than opening the door and closing it quickly several times.
Tips For The Dishwasher
If you really want to save some energy, wash the dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. Well, at least that will help your energy bill. Of course, it might make your body more tired. Just make sure you aren’t using a steady stream of hot water.
When you are using the dishwasher, run it for full loads only. And use cold water when you rinse the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher. Some dishwashers have energy-saving cycles. If yours does, make sure to take advantage of that.
Tips For The Whole House
- Lower your temperature just a little bit. Studies show that lowering your thermostat for a long period of time — like when you are gone for work or asleep at night can lower your St. George heating bill by about one percent for each degree you lower the temperature. If you are too cold, you can just put on a sweater or use an extra blanket.
- Pay attention to what time it is. It is cheaper to use energy during off-peak hours. Those hours are typically from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Although it will depend on your specific location. You can take advantage of this by setting your thermostat to warm up the house right before and after the off-peak hours. If you have a well-insulated and sealed home, it will retain that heat for most of the day. Off-peak hours are also the best time to use your appliances.
- Many people don’t realize that using your ceiling fans can help reduce your monthly heating bills. You just need to run them in reverse. Doing this can cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent. Flipping a switch on the fan turns the traditional counterclockwise rotation that produces a cool breeze to a clockwise rotation that pushes warm air back into circulation.
In Conclusion
Saving energy in your home can be a habit that saves you quite a bit over the long run. This will certainly be worth doing. Especially for residents of St. George who need an HVAC company they can trust.