Video: How to Lower Your Power Bill in an Apartment Home

How to Lower Your Power Bill in an Apartment Home

One thing you can do to lower your power bill in an apartment is install a programmable thermostat. Lower your power bill in an apartment with help from a seasoned home improvement expert in this free video clip.

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Andy Carlson. I'm the owner of two Ace Hardware stores in Denver, Colorado, and today we are going to talk a little bit about what you can do to save money if you live in an apartment. The number one thing you can do is install a programmable thermostat. So a lot of people think that this is a big deal and it's really very, very easy to do. And a lot of people don't think they should install one in their apartment because it doesn't belong to them. But this is so easy to install and it's easy to uninstall so once you move out of your apartment you can actually take it with you and take it to the next place you live. So this is a very simple device. And what it does is it allows you to control the temperature of your apartment when you are not there. So you go to work every day and if you don't have a programmable thermostat your house is just going to be at 70 degrees all day long. And there's no one there. So the programmable thermostat will allow you to say hey I leave for work every morning at 7:30 and I'm going to reduce the heat in my apartment to 58 degrees. And then about an hour before you come home you have that heat come back up to where ever you are comfortable say 70 degrees. And stay that way until just before you go to bed. And then it turns down again. And people think that the amount of energy it takes to cool and warm the house offsets the fact that you've reduced the temperature, not true. So for every bit of savings you get as the temperature cools that just evens out the amount of energy it takes to rewarm the house. And all the time that you have in the middle is your savings. So if your apartment is at 58 degrees the entire eight to ten hours you are at work everyday you are saving money during that entire time. This device will pay for itself within one year easily. And is the number one thing you can do. Now the number two thing you can do is focus on the lights in your house. So it's easy enough to just say hey I'm going to turn things off and you definitely should do that. But most people have heard of what's called a CFL light bulb. This is a compact fluorescent light bulb. And this actually uses a fraction of the energy of a regular light bulb. So this is the equivalent of a 60 watt bulb but it actually only uses 13 watts of energy to produce the same amount of light. CFLs are only one option that you have nowadays though. There are a lot of companies that are making what's called a halogen filament bulb. So this bulb is going to use 28 percent less energy then a regular light bulb but it looks as you can see just like the light bulb you are used to but uses less energy. Those two bulbs are your most common. People don't realize that energy efficient bulbs come in all kinds of different configurations. So if you have this kind of light bulb over your kitchen table or in your bathroom you can get bulbs in virtually every configuration. And if you look carefully you can see that this is actually a CFL down inside of that shell. And the newest technology is what's called an LED bulb, light emitting diode. So this actually uses three watts of energy to produce that same amount of light. This bulb will last for 22 years of use. So if you are using this in your apartment when you leave your apartment take it with you. This is Andy Carlson with Ace Hardware in Denver, Colorado with some great tips on how you can save energy in your apartment.

How to Lower Your Power Bill in an Apartment Home

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