Spend More Time Enjoying Life, and Less Time Worrying About High Electricity Bills.
Here are some seasonal energy saving tips to help protect your home and furnishings, as well as manage your energy costs, while you're away.
Programmable Thermostats
Programmable thermostats can save energy and help prevent mold in unoccupied homes. One way to help prevent mold from developing in your vacant home is to control the indoor relative humidity. You can accomplish this and still manage your electricity costs by using a programmable thermostat. Program your air conditioner to run at 72 degrees for just two hours before sunrise and at 88 degrees the rest of the day. If your air conditioner does not have a programmable thermostat, set it to 80 degrees. Thermostats in condos and apartments should be set at 77 degrees to make the air conditioner run enough to provide significant dehumidification.
Repairing any leaks in your air conditioning ducts helps control the humidity in your home, too.
Refrigerator Settings
If the refrigerator is left on, turn it to the warmest setting to reduce electricity use. If turned off, clean the interior with a solution of 1 tablespoon of baking soda in 1 quart of water, dry thoroughly and leave doors open.
Lighting Settings
Use timers or daylight sensors to help conserve electricity if you leave lighting on for security reasons.
Swimming Pool
Turn off the pool heater at the circuit breaker, and set filter pump timer to limit run time to six hours a day during the summer and four hours a day in the winter.