IDT Energy Savings

With summer around the corner, it’s important to start thinking about saving energy and costs.  During the warmer weather months, there are a number of ways that you can save energy by making smart purchases and by being creative.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started whether you use IDT Energy or another company.

If you’re buying an air conditioner for the summer months, look for one with the ENERGY star label.  They are the most energy efficient models that you’ll find, enabling you to cool the house for less money.  A new air conditioner can actually reduce your cooling costs by as much as 20% when compared to an older unit.

While most people don’t realize this, the location of the room air conditioner actually makes a difference.  Try to keep your room air conditioner out of the sun.  Room air conditioners work the best when they are kept cool.  Usually, the best place to install one is on the north-facing wall.

These tips should help you to begin your summer electricity preparations.  Keep it cool while saving money!

The largest expense of running a washing machine is heating the water. The majority of time your clothes will be just as clean after washing in cold water as washing in warm or hot water. If you do have a lot of extra dirty clothes on hand, it is more efficient to pre-soak them in warm water and then wash them in cold, saving lots of warm water which is just not necessary to use.

Do you find that your dryer just doesn’t try as quickly as it used to? This is most certainly a problem caused by an over accumulation of lint. Always check the lint trap and clean it after every load you dry. Also check the dryer’s exhaust for lint that could be blocking the efficient exiting of the hot, humid air to the outside. This simple rule can save you lots of energy, time and money.

An even better idea is to hang your clothes to dry when the sun is shining outside. This ancient form of solar energy is free and abundant and will even give your clothes a nice “outdoorsy” smell. Yes it is time consuming, but maybe you would like to get some fresh air and enjoy the warm sunshine, and the great garden smells while at the same time saving quite a bit of energy and money.

There are two parts to saving money getting the household chores done. The first part is purchasing the right appliance at the right price, and the second part is using that appliance in the most efficient way possible.

When you are in the market for a new appliance, whether it is a new refrigerator, microwave or dryer, it is important to do the research ahead of time. Nowadays with computers so handy, it is easy to check on which appliances are best suited to your needs, which are the most reliable, and which use energy most efficiently. When you have narrowed down your search to a particular brand name and model, then you can shop around for the best price on this appliance. You can also do this research on-line, or you can call local stores and compare prices. Remember to include the cost of running the appliance into your calculations.

Even if an appliance costs more, if it is more energy efficient it will end up costing you less over the long run. For an appliance that you will own and use for many years, this difference can add up to a lot of money.

To insure energy efficiency in your appliances, make sure they have the EnergyStar Logo.  If you find the more energy efficient appliance is too expensive for your budget, ask the salesman if they have the same product in last year’s model. This way you will be getting basically the same appliance, but at a reduced price. Don’t forget to include the kind of service the store will provide if problems should arise. For many people it is worth it to spend more money in a store that offers better service than a discount store which sends you somewhere else if there are problems.

Where would we be without our appliances? Can you imagine life without your refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, or even something as simple as a blender or mixer? We definitely take these amazing household helpers for granted, but we should realize that what we save in time and tedium we pay back in dollars. Every time we turn on an appliance, we are paying for its use through our household bill for electric and natural gas. On the other hand, the amount we spend is miniscule if we compare how much it would cost in man-woman/hours to do the same job without the electricity. For instance, doing the laundry could take all day down by the river just to do one load of clothing.

With the use of a washer this same chore takes about an hour of time and a tiny amount of electricity. Even if you take into consideration the cost of the appliance itself, when divided over the life of the appliance, which can be 15 or more years of use, it still comes out quite inexpensive to use today’s time and money saving appliances. So the conclusion is certainly that our modern appliances do free us up with more time to do things we find life-enhancing, at a fraction of the cost.

Nevertheless it is still possible to use our appliances more efficiently and save even more time and money by just following a few basic tips.

Now might be the perfect time to change your storage tank water heater to an energy efficient tank-less style water heater. These water heaters are more efficient than the older style where you have to pre-heat your water and store it in a large water tank, ready to use. According to some natural gas suppliers like IDT Energy tank-less water heaters can be anywhere from 10%-20% more efficient saving that much money on your gas bills by making the switch.

Tank-less water heaters are also space savers, usually only about 2 feet high, 1 ½ feet wide and 9 inches deep. Water is heated almost instantaneously at the moment you turn on the faucet.

Another advantage of the tank-less water heater is that because there is no storage tank there can never be a burst water tank, with the mess and loss of money that goes with it.

If you are in the market for a new water heater, check out the possibility of replacing your old one with a tank-less water heater. It might be a great choice for you and your family.

Sometimes, big savings can come in small packages.  This is the case with the programmable thermostat.  Purchasing a programmable thermostat can drastically decrease your energy consumption and add up to great savings each year.  Here’s how:

When you properly set a programmable thermostat, it makes it easy for you to save money by lowering the temperature while you are asleep or out of the house. This means that you’ll be saving money while not sacrificing your comfort in the home.

The thermostat has pre-programmable settings that automatically turn on, and you can save even more with a programmable thermostat that is Energy Star approved.  This is one of the many suggestions that can help homeowners and renters to save money this winter.  IDT Energy wants every customer to have an easy winter and to save whenever possible.

IDT Energy wants you to save on your energy costs.  Here, you’ll find some incredibly easy tips for saving money on your energy bill. Here is a great one.  Reduce your water heater thermostat from 140 degrees Fahrenheit to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.  You won’t notice a difference whatsoever in your showers or your household water use.  What you will notice, instead, is a savings between 3-5% in energy costs with this simple adjustment.

What you’ll also notice is a slower buildup of minerals and corrosion in the water heater and pipes.  This will help your water heater to last longer and to operate to its maximum capacity.  In addition, you’ll avoid scalding which is possible when the water heater temperature is as high as 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  This win-win change can have a great influence on your energy bill and your safety!

President Obama and the White House have made great strides lately with clean energy investments and more.  They have over $80 billion in clean energy investments as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  This should jump-start the economy and help to build the clean energy jobs for our future.

This initiative includes $11 billion for a highly advanced grid that will move renewable energy from rural places where it is produced into the cities.  It also includes $40 million for smart meters for American homes.  In addition, it includes $5 billion for low-income home weatherization projects.

These are a few of the many initiatives the White House is putting in place for helping the environment and for creating better energy investments in our future.

First of all, you should know that refrigeration is based on a simple principle: the evaporation of a liquid to keep things cold. You already know about this principle, you experience it every time you perspire to release extra heat from your body, or cooling off by getting wet.  When the water evaporates off your body, it uses energy by absorbing heat and cooling you off. The effect of putting alcohol on your skin is even better at cooling, because alcohol evaporates at an even lower temperature.

In a refrigerator the liquid that evaporates does so at an extremely low temperature, cold enough to create the icy cold conditions inside your fridge and freezer. If you should be foolish enough to put some of the refrigerator’s coolant on your skin, your skin will freeze as the refrigerant evaporates.

Your refrigerator is made up of five basic parts:

1.    Compressor

2.    Heat-exchanging pipes- coiled or serpentine, found outside the fridge

3.    Expansion valve

4.    Heat-exchanging pipers-coiled or serpentine, found inside the fridge

5.    Refrigerant- the liquid which evaporates inside the refrigerator to create the cold environment of the fridge.

Have you ever given much thought to how refrigerators work? Here is a brief discussion of how the most important appliance in your home has revolutionized the way we live.

Even though many things taste better cold, like drinks and other foods, the real purpose, and revolutionary effect of refrigeration is to keep foods from spoiling, especially sensitive foods like meat and dairy products. For example, milk would spoil in a matter of hours if left at room temperature, but at the normal temperature of a home fridge, milk can last a week or more. If milk is kept frozen it will last much longer. This is because there are bacteria in food that grow quickly at ordinary temperatures, and if left to themselves they will reproduce until the food is no longer edible. These same bacteria grow much, much less rapidly at extremely cold temperatures, like 40 degrees Fahrenheit (about 5 degrees Centigrade.) At zero degrees Centigrade (32 degrees F) the growth of bacteria is entirely checked.

Without refrigeration we would need other ways to preserve foods, like old fashioned ice boxes, or salting food which also inhibits bacterial growth.