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Leaking of air from your home, caused by uneven foundation, wear and tear over time, or vulnerable areas of ductwork, can make heating and cooling your home a costly endeavor. This is exacerbated during extreme weather or certain times of year. These leaks force your heating and cooling systems to work harder which drastically decreases the lifespan of your appliances. 

Experts advise homeowners to pay ‘special attention’ to ports of entry/exit, such as windows and doors. Small gaps can allow air to escape from your home after you have already heated or cooled the air, forcing your HVAC and heat pumps to compensate in order the maintain the indoor temperature at your desired setting. This can easily be remedied by caulking leaky windows and regularly applying new weather stripping around doors. Areas to focus on..

·  Caulk around plumbing penetrations that come through walls beneath bathroom and kitchen sinks.

·  Caulk electrical wire penetrations at the top of the interior walls

·  Caulk along baseboards with a clear sealant

·  When heating or cooling, keep windows locked

Most utility companies offer a free service called a ‘Home Energy Audit,’ which can be scheduled via online portals. Old windows and doors can cause the greatest loss of efficiency, and experts agree that updating and tightly sealing these common areas of leakage will quickly pay for themselves in the savings you will see on your power bill.

Any device that is plugged into an outlet but not being used, is pulling energy from the grid which wastes electricity and costs extra money, The primary reason for the loss of energy is due to unused devices creating extra heat, which is both costly when regulating the temperature of your home and causes damage to the batteries of your devices that may decrease their lifespan. I know we all have phone charges coming out of every outlet these days but stop charging invisible phones and put them away for storage so you can find them when you need them. A good rule of thumb to follow, is to unplug appliances when they're not in use, or put electronics you want to remain plugged in for convenience, such as lamps, WIFI routers, cable boxes, computer charges, etc. plugged in to a smart power strip so that when they are in the off mode, they do not pull power from the grid. Only when you power on the device, will the smart strip allow power to flow to that device while it is in use. Getting at least one smart strip for each entertainment system in the home is a smart practice. 

"The average American spends about $2,500 a year on energy, just to heat water," according to author Sara Snow, a green living author and expert. She doesn't recommend sacrificing hot water entirely, I mean who wants to live on cold showers, but cutbacks when doing laundry or running the dishwasher, will create significant savings. Special cold water laundry detergent is also available at most home goods and grocery stores.

P.S. If a tankless hot water heater is not something y’all have considered adding to the family budget, we highly recommend rethinking that idea, but until then, try installing a timer on your electric water heater to keep hot water use to a minimum.

"[Shrubs and climbing vines] can cool your home by as much as 20 degrees and cut cooling costs by 30 percent,"Snow says. The Southern and Western facing azimuths of your home receive the most sunlight for the most hours per year, so being vigilant about insulating those parts of the home, as well as the roof planes that face those directions, will make the greatest impact on your cooling costs. Imagine how much solar could cool your home if installed on the parts of your roof that receive the most sunlight the most days per year for the most hours per day…this would result in a decrease attic temperature between 6 to 8oF! 

While there are many ways to make your home more energy efficient, solar is absolutely the most cost effective and logical choice. Instead of allowing sunlight that would have normally heated your home and cost you money to be absorbed by your roof, you would be using solar panels to collect and harness that energy to power your home! The sun is free, all you need is the proper equipment and installation to allow you to take advantage of all that energy currently going to waste and costing you money in more ways than one!