It doesn’t matter if you’re living in Europe or America, the same concepts that apply to saving energy in one place apply to most others worldwide, assuming certain variables like products being available for use. With that said we provide the following tips for you to consider in your own home:

  1. Check your weather stripping. Even if the space between a door and threshold is paper thin (think along the lines of an eighth of an inch) that space alone is equivalent to a two inch hole in the wall letting cold (or hot) air in our out. By closing gaps such as these with weather stripping you can significantly reduce the demand on your heating or cooling system (and the environment).
  2. Program your thermostat. Programmable thermostats are now easier than ever to install, affordable, and readily available. By setting your temperature back a few degrees during an 8-hour period (like when you’re not at home or sleeping) you can reduce your heating and cooling bill by up to ten percent. And don’t worry, should you ever need to make a quick adjustment for unexpected reasons, most models have a temporary manual override for situations such as this.
  3. Use those “funny looking” bulbs. You bet when the light bulb was first invented and introduced to market a lot of people thought they were “funny looking.” And so it is today with the influx of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) but that’s not a reason to not use them. First, the bulbs last up to ten times longer than old fashioned light bulbs, but they also reduce energy use by as much as 75 percent. Yep, you read that correctly 75. That alone should be reason enough to make the switch (no pun intended)! The older versions are no longer available, but even with other choices on the market (like LED), we still opt for CFL’s as the first choice.