Homeowner Tip: Save Energy This Holiday Season

Celebrating the holidays is the most anticipated time of the year for many people. Entertaining friends and family is a tradition homeowners keep up with year after year. This season, Forest Glen has decided to give you some guidelines, should any home maintenance interruptions come your way. They might even help cut down on some energy costs!

Entertaining & Hosting House Guests:

• Holiday parties bring many warm bodies into your home, spreading the joys of the season in smaller spaces allow merry-makers to do the work and give your furnace a break. Turn down your heat during the party to avoid having to open windows, so your heating system won’t be forced to work harder. If you are entertaining in a basement, turn off the heating system altogether.
• Chicago will surely have a white Christmas this year, so put it to work! Keep your cold beverages outside in the snow or in a garage to leave space in your fridge for food. Fill up a bucket with snow instead of ice and save yourself a couple bucks while impressing your friends and family with your resourcefulness.
• Are you hosting houseguests this year? Cut down on your daily shower from 10 minutes to 7 minutes and save up to 7.5 gallons of water per shower and save hot water for the slow pokes.
• Create a holiday centerpiece using recycled materials found at home. Like these yarn covered trees for a festive and fun look. Great for a pre-holiday kids craft, too!

Kitchen Tips:

• Bake your way through the holidays multiple cookie sheets at a time and avoid using your oven more than necessary.
• Only turn on your oven when you are ready to bake. While recipes call for preheating the oven before ingredient preparation, most ovens these days preheat more quickly than you can mix cookie dough.
• Peek through the oven window instead of opening the door. Opening your oven door can lower the temperature inside by as much as 25°F.
• Instead of using your oven to reheat food, use the microwave reheat preset or the toaster oven and minimize the use of your oven, which requires much more energy than other, smaller appliances.

Gifts & Decorations:

• Get creative with your gift wrapping this year, use recycled newspapers, or draw on brown paper grocery bags instead of buying wrapping paper. While unwrapping gifts is the most exciting part of the holiday, it is also cause for the most waste. Think green this year and wrap boxes in such a way that can be reused next year, or choose gift bags you saved from last year. Always try to save as many bags and boxes as possible at the end of your gift giving tradition.
• Avoid the blow-up yard ornaments this year, and save about $50 or more during the holidays on electricity used to power them.
• Choose LED lights instead of incandescent holiday lights.
• Set your holiday lights to a timer, or remember to unplug them each night. Turn them on only when it’s dark.
• Is your tree not bright enough? Instead of using more lights, add tinsel or garland for more decoration.

Click here for more Winter Home Tips and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year! Happy holidays to you and yours from Forest Glen Construction!

Original content created with help from http://www.we-energies.com/, http://www.hgtv.com/hosting-the-holidays/package/index.html, and http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/home/holidaytips.aspx