Earth Day 2012: Your Home's Impact On The Environment

In honor of Earth Day, Pro Energy Consultants would like you to take a look at how our home activities specifically waste energy and learn some ideas on how to improve our energy use.

Most families worry about the cost of energy, getting upset because they have their heat on full-blast during the winter and cannot keep their home warm, which means they have to pay more money just to get through the winter. What they don’t realize is that they’re also doing damage to the environment! That extra energy being used is creating MORE greenhouse gases. The same goes for cooling your home in the summer.

In the U.S., 20% of greenhouse gas emissions come from home energy use (Encyclopedia of Earth).

Heating and cooling your home usually consumes the most energy, more than any appliance that you may have, but this can vary based on the climate you live in. After heating and cooling, other major categories of home energy use are lighting, refrigerators and other appliances, and electronics. The same principles apply here: it’s easy to measure energy by cost, and it is much more difficult to measure energy by the waste created.

We have several tips on how to save energy written in our whitepaper on this same topic, which you can read here. However, here are a few:

•  Do not use duct tape to seal your ducts. Instead, use water-based mastic.
• Use motion detector light switches so you don't have to remember to turn the lights off.
• Use sealant or caulk to fill any leaks around window or door frames.
• Buy Energy Star appliances
• Use power strips that cut-off energy when electronics are in stand-by mode, ending "vampire draw" or using energy when an item is off.

Want to do something good for the environment right now?? Like us on Facebook, and we'll donate $1 to the Arbor Day Foundation and their efforts to plant trees in tornado-ravaged communities.