Quick Tips The Home / Energy Conservation Cleaning Cooking Cut Flowers Decorating Energy Conservation Sundry Hints Quick Tips Categories Wrap water heaters with an insulation jacket to retain heat and limit the amount of heat lost to the air. Keep shades and curtains open during daylight hours to capture sunlight and closed at night to retain heat. Periodically clean the squirrel cage type blower in a forced air heating system to improve its efficiency and lower the system's operating cost. A vacuum cleaner hose attachment and a stiff brush are effective cleaning tools for this purpose. For each degree you set your thermostat above 70 degrees Fahrenheit you can expect a 3% rise in energy costs. For most people a 65 degree daytime setting and 55 degree nighttime setting is acceptable. Walk around the house with a candle on a cold windy day to see where cold drafts may be entering your house. Take special notice around doors and windows. If you plan to install new shades or blinds to help keep your home warm, consider mounting them outside the frames. If they’re installed inside window frames, air can leak along the edges. Outside mountings help reduce the flow of cold air into the room. A simple strategy like keeping your windows sparkling clean in winter can help warm your house. Spotless window glass lets in more sunlight than grimy panes. During cold weather, pull shades or close the curtains at night, but leave them open on east, south and west windows during the day for solar heat. Because a great deal of heat is conducted through large, overhead garage doors, a significant amount of heat can escape from a home that has an attached garage but no insulation between the house and the garage. An insulated and weather stripped garage door can save you money, even if the garage is unheated. To speed the installation of weather stripping, try stapling it instead of nailing it. When you’re not using the fireplace, be sure you’re not losing heated air through the chimney. Remember to keep the fireplace damper closed except when a fire is burning. Position a refrigerator where there’s plenty of air circulation. A refrigerator uses more energy when located near a stove or a heating vent. Close the refrigerator door on a piece of paper. If you can easily remove the paper, you’re wasting electricity and should replace the door stripping. Copper and stainless steel cookware usually require lower heat settings than aluminum cookware. To save energy, convert incandescent fixtures to fluorescent wherever practical. Fluorescent tubes illuminate more efficiently than incandescent bulbs. To save energy, use one large bulb rather than several smaller ones. Six 25-watt bulbs produce the light of a single 100-watt bulb. If your water heater is warm to touch it is not properly insulated and is wasting energy. 15%-20% of the energy your water heater uses goes to keeping a tank of water hot until you need it. A water heater blanket can save 5%-10% of the energy youÕve been using. Barbecuing out of doors will keep your house cool during the hottest summer months. It will save on electricity as well. Insulate a cold inside wall by adding large wall hangings or wall to wall curtains. Leaks around doors can be fixed temporarily by putting weather stripping around the frame until the whole door can be repaired. If you feel cold air coming from your electric outlets, turn off the electricity, remove the switch plates, and fill the hole with fireproof insulation. It takes only 1/20,000 of a second to turn a bulb on, with not even a blip on your electrical meter ... so always turn lights off when not in use. Front loading washing machines are the most energy efficient washers. A duvet is more energy efficient than an electric blanket. Install a ceiling fan to force warm air down from a cathedral ceiling or stairwell. In cold weather, reverse the switch (to rotate clockwise) so it blows upward, toward the ceiling. Heat that naturally rises will be forced back down into the room. Summer cooling: A reversible fan installed in the attic will bring in cool night air and expel warm daytime air. This will save energy if you have an air-conditioned house. Use glass doors on fireplace openings to reduce heat loss. The correct placing of foundations plants can cut your heating costs considerably. Evergreens act as insulation when places about two feet from the foundation of the house. Make sure they buffer your house from prevailing winds. Clean or replace furnace filters every two months. Email your favorite tips to us and we’ll post them. Please specify whether you’d like your name and email address included.