Introduction
According to Matt Davies Stockton, people don’t realize how easily they can increase the energy efficiency of their homes. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on entirely new HVAC systems or appliances. Let’s check out how you can improve the energy efficiency of your home.
The Details
- LED bulbs – LED bulbs have been a thing for a long time and have become far cheaper than they were just 5 years ago. In fact, LED bulbs are so cheap now that they can compete directly with the upfront cost of CFL bulbs. Switching all the lights in your home with LED bulbs and tubes is an affordable way of improving your home’s energy efficiency.
LEDs are far more efficient than incandescent and CFL bulbs since they lose very little power as heat. Most of the electricity is converted into light and these bulbs also boast a much longer lifespan. They can easily last you for half a decade without any problems. Moreover, there are also LED bulbs in the market that allow color customization and other smart features and can be controlled from your phone or computer. So, you get to take the first step towards turning your home into a smart one while improving energy efficiency at the same time.
- Insulation – Insulation also plays a key role in deciding the energy efficiency of your home. If you stick to traditional options, you may spend thousands of dollars insulating your home. However, there are smart hacks you can implement. Inspect your attic and pay extra attention to the perimeter and joists. If you have extra insulation lying around, fill up exposed areas and the area around the attic door. Most of the hot and cold air exchange happens in this area.
After you’re done with the attic, move on to the rest of the home and look for gaps around your doors and windows. If air transfer happens at the gaps in the windows and doors, it makes your thermostat and HVAC system go wild. Plug those gaps with caulk.
- Use drapes – Some rooms in your home are always warmer than the rest and this makes the HVAC system work extra hard to cool those places down. Those rooms probably got a lot of direct sunlight. To keep them cooler, you just need to buy new drapes. Not those thin drapes with exquisite patterns.
Instead, you need to get blackout curtains that completely prevent sunlight from getting through. This way, those rooms stay extremely dark and don’t stress out the air conditioning. Moreover, blackout curtains are dirt cheap and come in a lot of variety in terms of colors and materials.
Conclusion
Matt Davies Stockton suggests that you use the above-mentioned methods to increase the energy efficiency of your home. These methods allow you to save a lot of money and maybe save up for the advanced and more energy-efficient cooling and heating systems you’ve been looking at.
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