Summer comes with many extra costs like vacations, camping, and family fun outdoors. We don’t want rising electrical prices to diminish our enjoyment of summer. Here are 5 ways to save energy and money this summer.
Dry Your Clothes Outside
Our clothes dryers use a lot of energy, and they may contribute to heating up our house in the summer depending on where you keep them. The summer heat is perfect for drying your laundry outside! Whether you have an umbrella rack installed in your backyard, a line running from your house to your garage, or even a system of multiple foldable and easily moved drying racks, the outdoors is a fantastic place to dry your clothes, sheets, and towels.
Watch the Temperature
Don’t turn the temperature too far down in your house. While it feels nice to come into a cold house from the blazing heat outside in the middle of summer, we don’t need our homes to be freezing cold. If you have to put a sweater or pants after sitting in your air-conditioned house for a while, it is too cold. Each degree we allow our home to heat up past 72° will save us about 3% on our electrical costs. Be careful not to start your AC too early in the spring or running late into the fall.
Fans
A ceiling fan or a portable fan that you keep or move around to the rooms in which you spend most of your time is much more energy efficient than an air conditioner. The air flow from a fan will allow you to run your AC less yet stay at the same level of comfort as if it were running more often. Having fans where you sleep and in places where you do your main activity such as the kitchen or the laundry room, can be helpful to keeping cool, and will help you to resist cranking the cold air!
BBQ
Your stove will heat up your house quite a bit. Invest in a good barbecue for outside for outdoor cooking, one that has burners on it to cook your side dishes, and even has an outdoor stove if you do a lot of baking or other such things. Cooking outdoors is not only one of the most enjoyable activities in summer, but it will also save you money on your electric bills.
Natural Cooling
As much as you can, look to natural cooling methods to keep your house pleasant and comfortable this summer. Open your windows at night for an extra breeze. Some people say the moisture from outside causes your air conditioner to work harder, though, so be aware and keep an eye on your usage. You can also depend on shade from trees and other natural things. Consider planting trees which shed their leaves in the fall so you can get the sunlight in the winter when you really want it but protect yourself in the summer.