With everyone feeling the economic pinch these days, we’re all looking for ways to conserve energy. Of course, global climate change is another factor which motivates many to try to reduce heating and electricity costs.

Our comfort thought does not have to take second place. Being required to wear our warmest clothing indoors all through the cold season is not what most of us want to do! So what are some of the things we can do while also maintaining a reasonable level of comfort?

Get in the habit of turning off those lights in those rooms that are not in use! This is easy to do and you just need to make it a habit. It is still not uncommon to drive down a road at night and see some houses with what seems all the lights on. Surely not all of those rooms are being used! If you can have your household members remember to to turn off lights as they leave rooms, your utility bill costs might begin to be lowered. Removing the older incandescent bulbs throughout your house (and office) and replacing them with compact flouresent bulbs will also have an effect. Less than three percent of the energy an incandescent bulb uses is in emitting light. The rest is heat. The newer compact flourescents will save up to 75% of your lighting expenses in electricity. One thing to bare in mind though is that you need to dispose of these bulbs correctly as they contain mercury.

Heating costs can be reduced by using programmable thermostat. When you turn down the heat at night in the cold months, this will help you decrease energy costs. Just a reduction by one degree over an 8 hour period will help you save up to one percent on the costs of heating. A good programmable thermostat makes this convenient and easy.

If you have a second home or cottage, think about installing a modern telephone controlled thermostat. Many of these can be set up so that if there is an alarm condition (temperature to high or too low), it will call a telephone number to report the alarm. Also, you can call into this type of thermostat and turn the heat or air conditioning on before you arrive.

Lighting, along with heating and cooling can make up a big part of your utility bills but there are ways for you to get these expenses under control and lower them

Learn more about good programmable thermostats.

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