Hi, this is Will with Grow and Make. And on this week’s Grow and Make TV, we’re going to talk about a few energy saving tips to help you save money through this winter.

One of the first things you might want to consider when you’re looking and trying to save money and energy at home is to purchase a programmable thermostat. If you don’t have one, you can find them at your local hardware store for typically between $25.00 and $75.00. When you bring it home, it’s fairly easy to install and reprogram. The programming will allow you to specify when the heat is on, when the temperature is reduced and when the heat is off throughout the week.

So, it’s optimized for when you are sleeping at night or when you’re up at in the morning until when you’re at work or away. Overtime, having programmable thermostat will save you a lot of money and reduce your carbon footprint and make your home a lot greener.

Another consideration you might want to make when trying to evaluate your home energy use is how many rooms you have in your house which are not being used where you can shut the vents and you can close the door. And you can eliminate heat from being used to those rooms which will make your home a lot more efficient. Take a layout if you have a pole section of your house which is accessible through one single door. You can eliminate all that excess heat from going into that part of the house. In this sort of time, it will add to another big significant difference in your home energy use, your heating bills and your carbon footprint.

One of the easiest ways that you can make a big difference in your home and energy use is with a compact fluorescent light bulb or led light bulb. Both of them has significant return on their investment and will reduce your energy use significantly with a simple replacement and installation.

In the last few years, compact fluorescence has become much better in the quality and in the ecstatic of what you can achieve by using one. Another item for your checklist is to every few months look at your furnaces filter and determine if it needs to replace. Replacing that filter can create a lot more efficiency for your furnace and in turn, reduce your energy bill and your carbon footprint. And it’s a fairly simple and inexpensive thing to do every few months.

Another consideration for your home energy checklist is to take a look at your home water heater and to ensure it’s not set at too high setting. If it is, you’re unnecessarily keeping your water very hot which is expensive in terms of energy use, your carbon footprint ad its going to impact your heating bill over time.

On this water heater, it has a setting of hot, medium and low. In this case, we just set it to medium. The typical temperature that you want to find if you have one that’s based on Fahrenheit is between 120 degrees and 140 degrees. Anything between there, you should be okay from a cost efficiency standpoint.

Another great way to save energy is to dry your clothes on a drying rack or a clothesline. It doesn’t have to be a summer time or hot outside to do this. You can have a clothesline in your house, in your basement. And you can bring a drying rack inside as well. It’s a convenient way to dry your clothes which is a more energy efficient than a dryer and far more environmentally friendly.

Typically, we’ll use the clothesline to carry our larger items and the drying rack for the smaller items like socks or underwear or small shirts. Over time, drying your clothes on a line or a rack is going to make a big difference in your utility bill and your carbon footprint.

Many people are surprised to learn that one of the biggest sources of energy lost in the home is the fireplace. There are a couple of simple things you can do to reduce that energy loss. One is if your furnace is running and your fire is completely out to ensure that the damper is shut.

Another option is to purchase a screen and a door that you can leave closed whenever your furnace is running. So in conclusion, we’ve given you a number of ideas and a short checklist of ways that you can reduce your energy use at home.

Another important consideration is when you begin this process, you might want to get together with your family or your housemates and communicate with them what you’re trying to accomplish which is to reduce your home energy use and your bills. And to work with them to do things like turn off lights, turn off appliances that aren’t being used and to measure every month how much reduction you see in your gas bills and your utility bill. And by the end of the winter, hopefully you’ll see a dramatic reduction in your overall energy usage through a little bit of planning, through going through a checklist and through working with the people in you home to accomplish that.

Anyway, thanks for joining us on Grow and make TV and we’ll talk to you next week.