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- Heat only the rooms you use. Avoid heating unused rooms by closing doors and warm air supply registers, or lower the room thermostat for baseboards. Avoid heating non-insulated spaces such as a garage, crawlspace, attic or storage shed.
- Lower your thermostat. Turn your thermostat down to 20 degrees Celsius during the day and to 17 degrees Celsius at night to save as much as 15 per cent on the heating part of your energy bill.
Try getting comfortable by putting on a sweater or slippers instead of turning up the thermostat.
- Automate, and make it easy. Buy a programmable thermostat to make setting temperatures easy. It will automatically save energy at night and when you're away from home.
- Heat can escape from unlikely places. Close the fireplace chimney damper between fires to keep warm air in during the winter and out during the summer. Use weatherstripping to seal around door openings and windows. Use caulking to seal gaps and holes around non-opening windows, electrical outlets and openings around water pipes and vents.
- Keep your furnace clean. A dirty furnace filter delivers less air. Ensure yours is clean.
- Don't crowd your furnace or boiler! Leave space and air around it. Make sure there are no combustible materials stored nearby. Keep things like bleach, cleaning products and aerosols well away.
- Get a caulking gun. If your exterior entrance door is drafty, you can caulk between the doorframe and the wall. To stop drafts under the door, install a door sweep on the bottom edge.
Lighting can account for up to 10% of the energy consumption in your home.
- Make the switch to CFLs. They use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, and last up to ten times longer. CFLs come in variety of sizes and illumination levels, and can be used in all areas of your home. Remember, a 20 watt CFL bulb gives off the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb.
- Turn off lights when not in use. One of the best ways to conserve energy is to simply turn off lights when not in use or when you leave the room. Try using timers and motion sensors for outdoor lighting.
- Use the right type of light for the job. Instead of illuminating an entire room, use task-appropriate lighting, such as reading lamps.
- Keep fixtures clean. Dirty bulbs and fixtures will reduce light output.
Further information about Compact Fluorescent Lighting
Refrigerators and Freezers
Refrigerators and freezers are two of the highest energy-consuming appliances in your home.
- Unplug that second fridge! Often second refrigerators are under-used, older models that just waste energy. If you need a second fridge during the holidays or special occasions, plug it in one or two days before you need it, and remember to empty it out and turn it off when you don’t.
- Check for broken seals. Gaskets on your refrigerator and freezer doors can wear out over time. Gaskets that do not seal properly can waste a lot of energy. To check the gasket, place a piece of paper between the door and the refrigerator as you close it. If you can move the paper freely from the door, it is not sealed tightly.
- Check the temperature. The temperature inside your refrigerator should be between 2°C and 3°C (35 to 38°F). This is usually the mid-level setting on the temperature controls on most refrigerators. Use a thermometer to check the temperature.
- Keep it clean! Unplug the refrigerator and remove the dust from the back or bottom coils every six months. Make sure there is at least 8 cm (3 inches) of air space between the back of the refrigerator and the wall, and at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) on both sides of the refrigerator to allow for good air circulation.
- Fill it up! Full freezers are more efficient – so keep it full, and don’t keep the lid open for extended periods of time. Know what you’re looking for before you open the lid.
- Choose a chest freezer. If a stand-alone freezer is absolutely necessary, choose a chest freezer – they are about 25% more efficient than other models.
Dishwashers
- Fill it up! Wash full loads only – dishwashers use the same amount of energy whether it’s a full load or half load.
- Select the energy-saving cycle – it will clean regularly-soiled dishes just as well as the normal cycle.
- Drip dry is best. Turn off the automatic drying function, or if not available, turn off the dishwasher at the end of the washing cycle and open the door.
- Don’t pre-rinse. Most newer models don’t require that you pre-rinse your dishes. Always scrape and remove liquids, and if you have to pre-rinse, use cold water.
- Slow the flow. Install low-flow shower heads and flow reducers on taps.
Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth and save 7-12 litres of water per minute.
Put a plastic pop bottle or milk jug filled with water, pebbles or sand into your toilet tank and save 45 litres of water a day. Keep the bottle away from the operating parts.
- Fix leaky taps! A hot water tap, dripping once every second, wastes 720 litres of water per month — or 16 hot baths.
- Turn it off! Turn equipment off when it is not in use (except your fax machine). A computer and monitor left on continuously can consume $147 worth of electricity a year (assuming that sleep mode is not used). By turning them off when you're not using them, you could save $100 per year (assuming the computer is on 10 hours/day for 228 days/year).
- Know the facts. It is a myth that computers use large amounts of energy when starting up, or that constant start-ups damage components or lead to electrical surges. It is much more cost-effective to shut the computer down when you are finished using it, and doing so actually reduces wear on your system.
- Check your computer settings. If your computer must be left on when you are not using it make sure that you enable the ENERGY STAR power-management feature on your computer for "sleep" mode. Set it to turn the monitor off after 10 minutes and the computer off after 20 minutes. At full power your computer and monitor could draw over 250 watts of power; in "sleep" mode, 15 watts. Screen savers do not save energy and can prevent your computer from "sleeping."
Reduce the brightness level of the screen to the lowest level you find comfortable.
- Choose fluorescent over incandescent. Fluorescent desk lamps consume about a quarter of the energy of an incandescent unit, with the same light output, and last about eight times as long.
- Unplug chargers. Lots of equipment has chargers, such as laptops, cell phones and digital cameras. When they are not charging, unplug them, as they draw some power whenever they are plugged in.