{"id":1309,"date":"2012-12-17T12:09:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T20:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.128plumbing.com.php73-37.phx1-1.websitetestlink.com\/?p=722"},"modified":"2022-12-13T09:20:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T09:20:22","slug":"some-holiday-energy-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/blog\/some-holiday-energy-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Some holiday energy tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The holidays are considered the most wonderful time of the year. For many, it is also the most expensive times of the year. Here are a few tips collected from various energy councils around the web and from our owner Dave to help take some of the sting out of your energy costs this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Entertaining Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Cook as many dishes as possible in your microwave over the holidays. Because microwaves cook food so quickly, the typical model uses as much as 75 percent less energy than a conventional oven.<\/li>\n<li>Use your slow cooker for holiday meals. For about 17 cents worth of electricity, prepare an entire meal can be prepared.<\/li>\n<li>When using your oven, do not open the door to check if your food is done. Use the window. Opening the door, even for a few seconds can lower your oven\u2019s temperature by as much as 25 degrees. If your oven does not have a window, try not to open the oven door until the time your food is close to being done.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off your oven several minutes before your food is fully cooked. As long as the door remains closed, enough heat will be stored inside to finish cooking your meal.<\/li>\n<li>Use pans that are the size of your oven tops heating element. More heat will go for the pan and less will be lost.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your refrigerator and freezer well stocked. Doing this helps keep the temperature stable when the door is opened.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Heating Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Set your thermostat between 66\u00b0F and 68\u00b0F, a comfortable range for most people. For every 1\u00b0F you lower your thermostat, you may reduce your energy use by 1-3 percent.<\/li>\n<li>Start the heating season with a new furnace filter, and clean or replace it monthly to keep your furnace running efficiently and home allergens under control.<\/li>\n<li>Setting your hot water heater to 120\u00b0F can cut your water heating costs by 10 percent.<\/li>\n<li>Open-hearth fireplaces draw heated air from your home, sending it and possibly your energy budget up the chimney. If you use your fireplace, install a snug-fitting set of glass doors and crack open a nearby window. Doing so reduces the amount of heated interior air drawn into the fireplace and improves efficiency by up to 20 percent.<\/li>\n<li>Keep all objects off\u00a0baseboard heaters, radiators, and ventilation ducts\u00a0to keep heat evenly distributed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Safety Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Before hanging holiday lights, check for damaged sockets, plugs and cords. Replace anything that looks defective.<\/li>\n<li>If you plan to string lights outdoors, be absolutely certain they are marked for outdoor use.<\/li>\n<li>If you use a ladder when decorating outside, stay well away from power lines. The same can be said for lights; do not place them near power lines.<\/li>\n<li>Fasten outdoor lighting securely to your home&#8221;s exterior to protect the lights from wind damage. Use only insulated staples or plastic attachments to hold strings in place, not nails or tacks.<\/li>\n<li>To avoid overloading electrical circuits, never plug in more than three sets of lights to one extension cord.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8221;t use light-duty flat extension cords, often brown or white, to power your lights. Instead, use heavy-gauge UL or FM labeled round extension cords.<\/li>\n<li>Never run electrical cords under rugs or carpeting.<\/li>\n<li>On January 1<sup>st<\/sup>, make sure you check your batteries in your smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The holidays are considered the most wonderful time of the year. For many, it is also the most expensive times of the year. Here are a few tips collected from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,15],"tags":[29,23,30,11,31,32],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cooling","category-heating","category-plumbing","tag-black-lab","tag-energy-saving","tag-entertaining","tag-heating","tag-holiday","tag-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.128plumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}