The Earth is important to all of us, and when it comes to reducing our impact – which often comes with the added bonus of lower bills – many of us will go to great lengths. But how far is too far? How do you know that what you’re doing actually makes a difference? That’s what we plan to address in part three of this ongoing series.

Healthy Home 365 wants to help you reach your goals of a more energy-efficient home, and that means addressing a few habits that do more harm than good. In parts one and two of this series, we addressed a wide range of energy-saving “tips” you might have found on the web that, in the end, can actually add to your utility bills rather than subtract. Leaving the lights on even when you’re only gone for a few minutes, for example, or simply turning off your electronics instead of unplugging them are two ways you may not be doing as much as you thought in work toward energy conservation.

In contrast, Healthy Home 365’s energy-saving products are easy additions to your home that can make a big impact, like reducing your energy bill by up to 35 percent. Explore our site to see how you can truly create a more energy-efficient home and continue reading to learn what other so-called energy-saving tips you can leave behind. We look forward to hearing from you!

Put Your Computer to Sleep

On the scale of energy use, keeping your computer on and streaming movies is definitely higher up on the line than putting it to sleep. However, leaving it on in any capacity is not a good way to conserve energy. Even if the screen isn’t lit up, or it’s just playing a screensaver of your favorite pictures, you can bet that your laptop or desktop is still drawing power. Letting it sleep through the night rather than shutting it down? Mistake. Especially if you have a newer computer, which is probably engineered to shut down and start up very quickly, shutting it down when you don’t need it is an incredibly simple way to reduce your energy usage.

Hand Wash Your Dishes

You mean well, but hand washing dishes that are dishwasher safe is wasteful in more ways than one. It uses more water and more energy, specifically if you wash your dishes in hot water. Dishwashers – particularly those that are recently manufactured – are made to be energy efficient. Studies show that they are also more effective at cleaning your dishes. Finally, an energy-saving tip that actually asks you to do less work!

Close Vents in Unused Rooms

You only need to control the temperature of the rooms you’re occupying, right? So why not close off the rooms you’re not using? As it turns out, closing the vents to unoccupied rooms can actually sabotage your HVAC system rather than lightening its load. Your heating and cooling system is built to serve the size and breadth of the ductwork in your house — if you have investigated improving or replacing your system, you have probably heard the warnings about a getting a system that is too big or small for your home, and this is why. Your HVAC doesn’t know how or when to adjust for closed off rooms, and it will continue operating as if it’s still servicing that space, which can cause problems. At the very least, it will imbalance your system and cause your furnace or AC unit to work harder.

When it comes to creating an energy-efficient home, make sure that your choices and habits are having the impact you want. You can’t always believe everything you read on the internet, and there are plenty of articles full of “hacks” that offer less-than-helpful advice. Hand washing your dishes or closing some of the vents in your home may seem like logical steps to take in the name of energy conservation, but they are just two examples of how your efforts can actually have the opposite effect.

Make a real difference with help from Healthy Home 365. We create energy-saving products to help Dallas/Fort Worth homeowners in their pursuit of energy conservation and efficiency, and we don’t make empty promises. You don’t have to take our word for it — check out our testimonials to learn from real customers how our products have helped them lower their bills, reduce their environmental impact, and live more comfortable. Explore our site to see what energy efficient innovations you can bring to your home and call Healthy Home 365 today to get started!