Investing In Yourself

The Best Investment Of All

There are many good reasons to conserve energy. As individuals, if we use less gas, oil and electricity, we will save money. If we all do it as a nation, we can reduce our dependence on foreign sources and slow the need to build additional plants and refineries. Conservation of energy has both personal and societal benefits.

All of us are striving to make every dollar go as far as possible. Energy conservation can help by reducing our energy costs. Homeowners can do many things to cut down on their energy needs.

Heating and air conditioning are the biggest energy consumers of the average household. Much of the heat and cool air escapes because of poorly insulated roofs, walls, doors and windows. Perhaps the best thing we can do to is to install better insulation to retain warm and cool air.

Recently, I did an energy audit of a home that indicated it needed more insulation in the attic. The homeowner increased their attic insulation from four inches to 15 inches, reducing their total energy costs by 25 percent. The savings in utility costs will pay for the investment in insulation in approximately 18 months. Where else can you invest your hard-earned money and have it double in a year and a half?

Old cooling and heating appliances should be inspected and replaced if necessary with newer models which are more energy efficient. Other large appliances like refrigerators can also be replaced with newer models that are designed to conserve energy. Always make sure you read the energy label. If you do , you will often find that a cheap product in fact can be expensive in its everyday use because of its energy consumption.

Traditional light bulbs are inefficient because much of the energy they consume is converted to heat. In December of 2008, Congress mandated the phase-out of incandescent lights to begin with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and end in 2014 with the 40-watt. Replacing all your incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs will provide the same level of light with less energy consumption. Even though the cost of these bulbs is greater than traditional bulbs, they last up to 20 times longer, resulting in significant overall savings.

These are but a few tips on how to stretch your energy dollar.