Rob Dreher’s expert knowledge about how consumers can save significantly on home energy costs came from decades of working in this profession at Alabama Power Company. He is a Certified Residential Energy Auditor as well as a licensed REALTOR. Be on the lookout for Rob’s Monthly Energy Tips!
1. Let the arrival of your power bill each month be a reminder to check on and/or change your HVAC filter. You will see better performance in your air conditioning system, better comfort, better air quality, and better energy efficiency. You don’t want to make your A/C work harder than it needs to in this Alabama heat!
2. Clean your Refrigerator Coils once a year with a brush specifically made to clean the coils. These brushes can be easily found at stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, and other specialty stores. By cleaning the coils yearly it will save energy by making your refrigerator run more efficiently and it should even increase the life of your refrigerator.
3. Change light bulbs to LED bulbs…this will cut down significantly on the the energy consumption of your lighting compared to incandescent, halogen and compact fluorescent alternatives. An example: you can operate an 8 watt LED bulb for 125 hours that would cost 1 kWh in your bill; compare this to a 60 watt incandescent bulb which can only for operated for 17 hours for that same cost of 1 kWh!
4. Use a Microwave Oven for cooking and reheating instead of a normal Oven…the normal oven heats up the kitchen and you’re A/C has to run to remove the heat generated by the oven in the Summer months; thus increasing your power bill.
5. Get on Budget Billing with Alabama Power Company and Spire Gas with your monthly bill. Budget Billing is nothing more that a rolling average. If your average goes up your monthly amount will go up; but if your monthly average goes down your monthly bill amount will go down. This will greatly reduce the unexpected higher bills for a hot summer or a cold winter. Basically you will not pay any more during the year, but Budget Billing will greatly help you budget for your monthly expenses and eliminate surprises in your bill.
Be on the lookout on the Arcara Residential Facebook page for more great tips from Rob Dreher about how to bring more energy efficiency to your home, which brings a tremendous amount of relief to your wallet. If you need a REALTOR in central Alabama, (or if you want to talk about how to make your home more energy efficient), contact Rob at (205) 966-5551, rob@arcarahomes.com.
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