Okay, the weather is nice out, spring is upon us and it is time for all of those things we forget to do in our day to day but need to keep on top of.
Consider this your reminder, take some time this week or weekend and boost efficiency around your home. Here’s some tips from my quarterly/semi-annual cleaning routine.
1. Check the 9V batteries in all the fire alarms, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. This little battery can save you and/or your family. Spend the couple dollars and put fresh batteries in them at least once a year. Ignoring it isn’t being frugal, its being stupid. While you’re at it, see the little button on it, push it in and test to see if it’s still working.
2. AC/Furnace filters. I change mine monthly in the summer and bi-monthly in the winter here based on how much we have to use it. Check this closely and gauge your usage, even though the manufacturer says 3 months, you may need to change it sooner. Around our house with the dog hair and everything else it doesn’t take long before it’s limiting airflow and reducing efficiency. In Kansas when it hits 110* in the shade in the summer, the a/c can barely keep up running all day long, a dirty filter just makes it worse and electrical prices aren’t getting cheaper.
3. Light bulbs… Okay… if you haven’t changed out your incandescents yet… 50 lashes for YOU!
Okay. Incandescents are about 14% efficient, putting most of the electricity you are paying for into heat, to which you know pay more electricity to cool the house to counteract it. Compact florescents (CFL’s) are about 22% efficient, using much less electricity (think 13watts instead of 60 watts). LED based lighting will be coming to mainstream at an affordable price, but not for a couple more years until they increase die efficiency. As of right now, LED lighting is already exceeding 30% efficiency. Even if you still have incandescents, dust off your bulbs, this will make them seem brighter and maybe you won’t need to have so many on. Food for thought.
4. Check out all the clutter. Around our house cleaning seems overwhelming with trying to care for an infant who is perpetually sick and working insane hours. Everywhere I look there is clutter. Whelp clutter no more, I have been piling and sorting all the clutter one room at a time and stacking it all on the back porch. I will then put it all out for a garage sale in a couple weeks and try to get whatever I can for it. Most things I have not used in years and sitting there is not only not helping me pay off debt, but the excess clutter is not helping my depression and making it really hard to get motivated.
5. Since you are checking around for clutter, keep an open mind about those items. Anything electronic, collectable, valuable? Skip the garage sale and do ebay or craigslist. I had a ton of electronic stuff from my college days of engineering that I had as a hobby, but now I do it for a living so work buys everything and they buy better stuff than I did. I haven’t used this stuff in years, so anything that was worth more than 30 bucks went on ebay. Some items sold for a couple hundred dollars, which sounds like a lot but is still probably less than I paid for it. Considering I had a grand of stuff sitting in the closet wasting away, it was worth the effort.
6. When you go outside to mow the lawn, make sure you do this trick. Turn off the A/C first, go outside to the unit that sits out in the back yard and take the hose to it, wash off all of the fins. When you get done hosing it down, if you have a leafblower, use it, if not no worry. The A/C is meant to run in the rain, so the hose won’t damage anything. the fan moves air through the unit across the fins. The fins exchange the heat from inside your house to the air outside the house cooling the refridgerant back down, so by cleaning them up every spring, you increase the efficiency of this heat transfer. Winter leaves a lot of dust and dirt on them and by not using the A/C in the winter, the fan doesn’t blow it out and the snow just cakes it in there. Also make sure that you keep hedges and trees trimmed back from the unit to allow good air flow too.
7. Wash your windows. I know, it’s a pain. By washing your windows you not only clean up but you will get all the winter grime off and allow more light to enter the windows allowing you to use your lights less.
Anyway, enjoy the spring weather, but don’t forget to do some spring cleaning for frugal’s sake.