Keeping Your Home Healthy During the COVID-19 Crisis

A guide by RMI providing six recommendations for homeowners to improve health, save money, and reduce carbon emissions during COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, focusing on energy efficiency and electrification.

• Using a programmable thermostat to adjust air conditioning or furnace operation based on prescheduled time blocks can reduce electricity bills by up to 10 percent. A general guideline is that adjusting the thermostat by one degree Fahrenheit (down in winter or up in summer) results in approximately 2 percent cost savings.
• LED bulbs are more efficient and durable than compact fluorescents (CFLs), lasting two to four times longer and providing a system efficiency of 50 lumens per watt compared to less than 30 lumens per watt for typical CFLs. LEDs also do not contain mercury and can withstand extreme temperatures.
• To reduce carbon emissions, homeowners should schedule appliances with delay cycles to run during low-carbon intensity periods, generally avoiding energy use between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Specific regional recommendations include running appliances between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in Texas during summer, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in California, Vermont, and Hawaii, and avoiding 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Pacific Northwest.
• The use of natural gas, oil, or propane in 70 million US homes and businesses generates 560 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. When including methane leaks from distribution, these fuels account for over a billion tons of annual CO2-equivalent emissions, representing 15–20 percent of total US emissions.

APA

RMI (2020). Keeping Your Home Healthy During the COVID-19 Crisis. https://rmi.org/resources/keeping-your-home-healthy-during-the-covid-19-crisis/

Chicago

RMI. Keeping Your Home Healthy During the COVID-19 Crisis. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/keeping-your-home-healthy-during-the-covid-19-crisis/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Keeping Your Home Healthy During the COVID-19 Crisis |date=30 March 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/keeping-your-home-healthy-during-the-covid-19-crisis/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2020keeping, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Keeping Your Home Healthy During the COVID-19 Crisis}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/keeping-your-home-healthy-during-the-covid-19-crisis/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }