Start Your Spring Cleaning with These Energy Saving Tips

With Groundhog Day behind us and winter (hopefully) coming to a close soon, it's time to start looking forward to warm breezes and spring cleaning. But that also means ditching your energy-consuming winter habits! Say goodbye to your heated blankets and hello to a brighter, cleaner, energy-saving spring.

Not sure where to begin? Here are a few tips on how to reduce energy use this coming season.

Adjust Your Water Heater

When spring rolls around, so does warmer weather. While you may lament not being able to soak in a steamy shower every morning, rising outdoor temperatures are certainly worth knocking a few degrees off of your daily cleaning rituals. Rather than doing this manually every time you hop in the shower, consider lowering your water heater's temperature by a few degrees. If you perform this action as it gets warmer outside, you could be saving your water heater some work and saving yourself a little bit of summer vacation money.

Let the Breeze Work for You

Green energy might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about spring cleaning, but it may be simpler than you think. After all, have you ever performed spring cleaning without airing out your house? When you turn off the heat and open the windows, you're letting the breeze take care of circulating air and maintaining the temperature in your home. It's nature's very own air conditioning!

Update Your Thermostat

Of all the easy ways to save energy, this is probably the most common. A programmable thermostat can actually save up to 10% of annual cooling and heating costs! With that in mind, it's not hard to see why this is one of the most popular ways to rack up energy savings. Instead of lugging your window units in and out every spring and fall, a centralized AC system with a programmable thermostat can make shifting between seasons as easy as pressing a button.

If you're wondering how to reduce energy use this spring, look no further than these three tips. For more information on how to help reduce your energy use at home, contact Starion Energy today.

Study Suggests U.S. Could Run Almost Entirely on Renewable Energy By 2050

The U.S. is slowly but surely making efforts to implement renewable energy nation-wide. Now, a new study has found that it may be possible for the U.S. to run almost entirely on renewable energy by the year 2050.

The Renewable Electricity Futures Study found that with current technology, an 80% renewables future is possible. The technology that could make this happen consists of wind turbines, solar power, biopower, geothermal, and hydropower.

Many areas in the United States are already investing time and money in renewable energy, which is further showing the positive impact of these energy efforts. In fact, 75 million barrels of oil are saved each year by people and businesses that use solar energy.

Researchers made sure to include results that detailed how potential for renewable energy sources would vary by region. For example, some areas in the country have substantial wind resources, while others have more solar potential. To show these results, interactive visuals were created.

The study looked at 134 regions across the country on an hourly basis. It was assessed by 140 peer reviewers and used state-of-the-art modeling to gather the data. The final report includes assessments of costs, challenges, and opportunities for the individual renewable energy technology.

By using renewable energy, the U.S. will be providing benefits for the climate, public health, and the economy. Not only does it drastically reduce global warming emissions and increase jobs, it can also reduce the necessary water amounts for power production compared to fossil-fueled power plants.

This Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study clearly shows that while an 80% renewables future is possible, it can only be achieved with the right policies in place.

What can you do to help?

With a little effort and by working alongside your local energy supplier, you can help contribute to this sustainable future. One thing you can do is look into easy ways to save energy in your home. This can be as simple as investing in a programmable thermostat, cleaning your furnace filters, and even talking to your local energy supplier about what kind of technologies they were using to supply energy to your area.

More and more energy providers are investing in renewable energy, saving themselves and their clients money. Because of this, it's important to fully understand what technologies are being used to generate your energy. With time, patience, and commitment, we could be on our way to a more sustainable future.

Why is Renewable Energy Important?

Conserving energy is important to not only save homeowners money on energy expenses but also to protect the future of the environment. One way to conserve energy is to utilize renewable energy sources. This article is going to discuss the importance of renewable energy and what it means for our future.

First off, what is renewable energy? Renewable energy sources are those that are replenished constantly. Renewable energy is reliable and plentiful compared to non-renewable energy. Sources such as coal, natural gas, and oil are only obtained by costly explorations and possibly dangerous drilling. Furthermore, these sources will continue to become more expensive as supply decreases. However, renewable energy will become less expensive once the technology needed to access it improves.

Common types of renewable energy include:

• Solar
• Wind
• Hydropower
• Biofuels
• Geothermal
• Tidal

One of the biggest factors in the importance of renewable energy is that these sources produce neither greenhouse gases nor harmful emissions. Unlike non-renewable energy, renewable energy causes no harm to the planet. With this lower impact on the environment, the earth will be better off in the long run.

Because of the immense benefits renewable energy sources can offer, more and more people and agencies are investing in these sources. In fact, hydropower accounted for around 6% of total energy generation in the U.S. and 46% of electricity generation from all renewable energy in 2015. Along with it's reduced harm to the environment, renewable energy can offer other benefits as well.

Compared to non-renewable energy resources, renewable energy prices have slowly been decreasing. Because of this price reduction, the world has seen significant advances in ways to utilize renewable energy. More energy efficient equipment, better engineering designs, and technology have all been a major focus of implemented renewable energy.

Furthermore, renewable energy offers long-term certainty. Because renewable energy as a long lifespan and one solar or wind farm can last for around 30 years, this allows users to have time to further increase efficiency by the time the equipment is ready to be upgraded. Unlike non-renewable sources, renewable energy will continue to become more effective while becoming less expensive.

And lastly, renewable energy can offer security. Renewable energy can be utilized anywhere, anytime. This leaves endless possibilities for harnessing this energy. On the other hand, most gas and oil sources are found in certain regions. These areas can prove to be technically challenging and can be expensive to access.

Choosing to diversify the nation's energy supply and realizing the importance of renewable energy will allow for a secure energy future. It's important to have long-term, sustainable energy options in order to continue harvesting the amount of energy we need.