quick tips

QUICK TIPS
Lowering your fuel bills
Nine ways to lower utility bills without spending a dime:
If you never use your fireplace, plug and seal the chimney flue. Otherwise, keep your damper closed unless a fire is going. An open damper is like keeping a 48-inch window wide open during the winter.
Unless you're dealing with oily stains, washing clothes on the warm or cold water setting on your machine will do a good job of cleaning them. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut a load's energy use in half.
Lower the thermostat on your water heater.
Take more showers and fewer baths. Bathing uses the most hot water in an average household. You use 15 to 25 gallons of hot water for a bath but less than 10 gallons in a 5-minute shower.
Don't keep your refrigerator or freezer too cold. Recommended temperatures are 37-40 degrees for the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator and 5 degrees for the freezer section. If you have a separate freezer for long-term storage, it should be kept at 0.
Regularly defrost manual-defrost refrigerators and freezers; frost buildup increases the amount of energy needed to keep the motor running.
In the summer, don't place lamps or TV sets near your air-conditioning thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, which can cause the air conditioner to run longer than necessary.
Before loading the dishwasher, scrape, don't rinse, off large food pieces and bones. Let your dishes air-dry; if you don't have an automatic air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse and prop the door open a little.
Use kitchen, bath and other ventilating fans wisely; in one hour, fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air.
Source: Newsday