Family vacations are wonderful. They're an opportunity for the family to bond while leaving the normal stresses of daily life behind. However, it's the wise homeowner who also ensures that the home is not racking up energy costs while the family's away. Vacations are a great time to reap energy savings.
Before you pack up and drive away, consider these helpful tips to ensure your home isn't wasting energy while you're gone:
- If you take a vacation during the cold months, turn your heat down to about 60 degrees, enough to keep pipes from freezing and cool enough to garner some real energy savings.
- In the summer, turn off your air conditioner, unless you're concerned about heat damage to plants or possessions. In that case, turn up the thermostat to 85 or 90.
- Make sure windows and doors are tightly closed to keep the inside air as stable as possible.
- If you don't use surge protectors, get them. In addition to protecting your electrical devices from power surges, they enable you to shut off all devices that are plugged into them. When you leave, shut them all down. Electricity does trickle so unplugging toasters, microwave ovens, lamps, TVs, stereo systems and other items can make a big difference in your energy savings. If you are concerned about safety, plug a radio and one lamp in a timer to simulate activity in the house.
- If you have a swimming pool pump, consider rescheduling the pump to operate for less time each day. If you can cover the pool and turn off the pump altogether, even better.
- Lower your water heater temperature so it doesn't unnecessarily heat water while you're away, or else turn it off at the fuse box or circuit breaker. (When you return, run your hot water faucet to make sure the equipment has water in it before you turn it back on). Not only will you get energy savings, you'll save some wear and tear on the unit.
Saving energy while on vacation will give you something else to smile about.
If you have any questions about energy savings or anything to do with HVAC systems, please contact us at Joe Behr Plumbing & Heating, Inc. We've been serving families in the mid-Ohio area since 1965.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy savings and other HVAC topics, visit our website.
Joe Behr Plumbing and Heating, Inc. services the Mid-Ohio area.
