Chances are good that you are among the millions of other people in the United States who are sick and tired of paying good money every month for energy. Making things worse, the price that electric, gas, and water companies are now enforcing in exchange for services continues to rise. As a consumer, you need to take charge and start making changes that would reduce the amount of energy used so each month, you are not paying a fortune in bills.
The interesting thing is that to conserve energy, some of the changes are large and expensive while others are small but extremely beneficial. For instance, a few examples of larger changes to save on energy would be to install an Energy Star water heater, choose a front-loading washing machine, or install a low-flow toilet. On the other end of the spectrum, simple changes such as drying clothes on a clothesline, using foam polyurethane to seal around windows, and even installing dimmer switches would also have a huge impact on the amount of energy used and money spent.
Dimmer switches are something that you could easily install on your own in very little time so the need to spend even more money for hiring a contractor would be eliminated. The process starts by purchasing a quality dimmer switch. Then, turn the electricity to the switch off that the breaker box. Just flipping the switch would leave electricity hot, which poses risk for being shocked so always turn power off at the breaker. Next, remove the plate cover and the two screws that hold the switch in place to the outlet box. From there, you would carefully pull the switch out of the box and disconnect it by unscrewing the attached wires.
If the wires are in good condition, then you would not need to do anything but if they are twisted, you could try straightening them out of if needed, use wire strippers to snip a small piece off the end, strip the sheath off the wire, and then use the newly exposed wires. As you look at the new dimmer switch, you would see two non-color coded wires rather than terminals. All you need to do is match the dimmer switch wires to the wires from the original light switch. For instance, you would twist the exposed wire of a black wire to a black wire, the ends of a white wire to a white wire, etc.
The only difference would be if you decide to install a three-way dimmer switch, which would have more wires. Some dimmer switches also have matching wires but if not, take a small piece of tape to the wires on the dimmer switch, making a small notation as to which wire it is. You would then match the wires to those of the terminal. If only two terminal wires exist on the terminal, a three-way switch would also need to be installed so you could match the three wires of the new switch to the three wires of the new terminal wires. Regardless, the spliced wires of the switch to the terminal would be twisted together and then secured with a wire connector.
With the simple wiring complete, you would push the connected wires back into the void area of the switch, screw the new dimmer switch onto the outlet box, put the cover plate back on, and then turn the electricity on at the breaker. Simply press the dimmer to make sure the light fixture works and turn the knob back and forth to make sure the switch is producing dim to bright illumination.
Of course, having simmer switches installed throughout the home is an excellent way to create mood or ambience but beyond that, money would be saved in more than one way. For instance, by lowering the illumination of the light bulbs, the life of the light bulb would be increased, meaning you would spend less on replacement bulbs. Additionally, the amount of electricity used would be dramatically decreased. In fact, using dimmer switches throughout the home could result in a savings of 5% to 10%. Just imagine a simple dimmer switch that took 10 minutes to install could increase the life of a light bulb by 50% and lower energy consumption by 10%, saving you money in both cases.
Just make sure that you choose a switch with a wattage rating higher than the total number of light bulbs used. In other words, if you want to install a dimmer switch in a dining room to control a chandelier with six different light bulbs, and each of those use 60-watt bulbs, total wattage for the light fixture would be 360. Therefore, when buying a dimmer switch for that particular room, the wattage rating would need to be higher than 360. If less, you would notice a humming sound, which means a switch with a heavier filament is needed.
One other very important thing to consider when installing dimmer switches to reduce energy use is that if you decide to use CFL type light bulbs, or if the dimmer switch would be used to control any type of low voltage lighting such a transformer or motor on an appliance, or to control a receptacle, there is a safety precaution. In these scenarios, most of the devices mentioned are designed to operate or perform at set speeds. Therefore, if forced to work slower by using a dimmer switch, they could become overheated and become permanently damaged. In fact, the dimmer switch would probably also be ruined and potential for fire increases.
