The Winter season is upon us. Home energy consumption is at its peak during the winter months. There are a few simple things you can do to save energy in your home and keep money in your wallet at the same time.

 Programmable Thermostat

Through proper use of pre-programmed settings, a programmable thermostat can save about $150 every year in energy costs. More specifically, by lowering the temperature on your thermostat by 1 degree for 8 hours you’ll see a 1% reduction in energy costs. For example, if you can reduce 8-10 degrees over night while you’re sleeping that will equate to an 8-10 percent reduction in your bill. If you can reduce temperature by one degree permanently that equals a 3% reduction. For example, going from 70 to 68 would mean a lower bill by 6%. With an average household electric bill in Colorado of $60, you’ll save $3.60 a month.

 Wind Chaser Fan Forced Heaters

Durable and high performance windchaser fan forced heaters are a safe, reliable choice for personal comfort. Consumers are provided with instant and economical heat. A similar concept as outlined below, if consumers can turn down their heat even a couple degrees, and heat the room they use with an effective portable space heater, the savings can add up significantly. The WindChaser space heater costs half as much to run as a typical space heater and can heat a room for just $0.06 per hour.

 Sealing up the home

Improperly sealed homes can waste 10 – 15% of the homeowner's heating dollars. Based on $720, what a typical Coloradoan spends heating/cooling their home each year, that’s up to $108 out the window (or cracks). At Ace, we can show you how to use weather stripping, caulking, foam outlet covers, spray foam and more.

Door stops and window film provide a lot of bang for the buck when it comes to sealing the home – an indoor window insulator kit costs less than $20 - and well insulated windows can bring savings of $50-$100.

 Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

This is a device that “empowers” you to save $100’s on electric bills.  By using the monitor, you will find out what appliances are actually worth keeping plugged in.  Like your local utility, the device counts consumption by the kilowatt hour.  You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even the entire year.  The device helps you make decisions on things like when it’s time for a new refrigerator or if that old AC is still saving you money.  Typically people can save 10 to 20 percent ($6-$12 per month) on their electric bills with very little behavior change.  The library has devices free to check out but, as we understand it, they’re in high demand and often checked-out.

 CFL Bulbs

An Energy Star qualified compact fluorescent bulb uses about 75 percent less energy than a standard light bulb. This efficiency translates to a CFL bulb life of up to 10 times longer than regular light bulbs and lowers your energy bills by at least $30 per bulb – not to mention fewer hours of fuel burning at the power plant, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. According to Energy Star, for every 100 regular light bulbs replaced by CFLs, there is an environmental benefit similar to removing three cars from the road for one year. Since the initial release of CFL bulbs the industry has developed an increasing number of styles and types of CFL bulbs. Iif you weren’t a fan of the first generation be sure to take a second look because you have lots of options these days.

 LED Holiday Bulbs

L.E.D. (Light Emitting Diode) lights use about one-tenth the electricity of super bright mini-lights, and as little as one-hundredth that of C7 incandescent lights. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if all conventional incandescent Christmas lights in the U.S. were replaced with L.E.D. lights, annual energy savings would total 2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) - enough to power 200,000 homes for a year.

Although L.E.D. holiday lights cost more to purchase than conventional mini-lights, they pay for themselves in a few years because they don't have to be replaced as often and reduce your electric bill. LEDs often last 10 times as long as incandescent lights.

According to Consumer Reports, a typical homeowner spends approximately $11 in energy costs to burn 50 feet of traditional lights for 300 hours, while the same use of LED lights costs less than 15 cents. Most strings of L.E.D. lights are rated for both indoor and outdoor use. They are less breakable than standard lights, and last longer (as much as 100,000 hours indoors, and 50,000 hours outdoors).