How Energy Efficiency Can Improve Your Home

Energy efficiency has become important in homes, offices and other buildings for a number of reasons. First, energy efficiency saves energy, which helps reduce expenses. Secondly, it makes buildings more conducive to use. Thirdly, energy efficiency helps promote the clean energy sources that are becoming increasingly popular throughout many parts of the world. Finally, energy efficiency promotes safety. Let's take a look at all these aspects, one at a time, so that you can understand why energy efficiency has become important in building construction.

When building a new building, you may find that you have little choice but to use energy efficiency in your decision making process. While a simple choice like using CFLs in an office cubicle might seem like a reasonable one that saves you some money, there are other benefits to going with CFLs over more efficient incandescents. CFLs use much less energy and therefore, they cost less energy, making them a simple choice for energy efficiency in industrial plants.

Another way to improve energy efficiency in your buildings is to take advantage of weatherization techniques. Energy Star certified weatherization can make large energy efficiency improvements in both cooling and heating in buildings. Energy Star also ensures that buildings are safe from the threat of carbon pollution from outside sources. A properly weatherized building will not only have a cooler indoor temperature and lower humidity but will have a cooler outdoor temperature as well. In addition, there will be less condensation on surfaces, leading to more energy efficiency and better indoor air quality.

In addition to proper weatherization, another energy efficiency measure you can implement in your building is energy-consumption design. By setting energy consumption targets and energy efficiency goals, the energy consumption of your facilities can be reduced over time. For facilities such as hospitals, this can be done through purchasing energy efficiency appliances. The appliance that is chosen should help your facility reduce its energy consumption by at least 20%. These appliances are often focused on improving air quality, humidity control, and energy consumption efficiency.

You should also consider using energy efficiency measures while designing your facilities. This includes looking into energy-efficient light bulbs. CFLs offer a relatively low-cost, long-lasting alternative to incandescent bulbs. Similarly, energy efficiency standards are now being put into effect for new construction, so that homes, offices, and other structures built later will meet current housing and building codes. To cut energy consumption even more, consider installing motion sensor lighting, which can also help you save energy.

Finally, another excellent way to save energy consumption and reduce energy bills is to have your appliances serviced on a regular basis. Servicing professionals will routinely check to make sure that all of your appliances are working well, and are not suffering from problems that could be related to poor or worn out parts. Many times they can even repair or replace problematic equipment that is not working as well as it could be. By having all of your appliances checked periodically, you can significantly reduce the amount of time that you need to hire a professional service in order to have your system serviced. And since many energy efficiency measures require the use of energy conservation appliances, having your appliances serviced regularly can also reduce your energy consumption.