Reduce Electricity Bills

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Reduce Electricity Bills

Submitted by: JAS 11/29/2008 1:13 PM

Unplug as many appliances as you can when not in use, and especially when you are away (microwaves, toaster ovens, blenders, coffee makers, tv's, sound systems, lamps, etc. - they draw energy even when not in use.

I live in a one bedroom apartment with a teen daughter and my electric bill is a whopping $38. - $40 per month! Now that gives me a real charge! Whoever thinks living in the dark (in an appropriate fashion) is a bad thing, isn't smiling when they pay their electric bill. I also recommend switching as many light sources as possible to n:vision light bulbs. They last for 10,000 hours (yea!), and a 40 watt bulb uses energy equivalent to only 9 watts (twice the yea!). As for light preference, they come in soft, bright and day light.

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Comments:

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I have cut my electric bill in half by using power strips to shut off all power to the appliances. I leave the a small radio on, instead of the tv when I go out. I only use the dryer for heavy things, towels, jeans, blankets, and dry the rest on my indoor porch. I only use the dishwasher when it's full. Instead of turning up the heat I wear warm clothes and slippers and use an electric blanket at nite. In the daytime I open the blinds to let the sunlite in. I have my ceiling fans on low, counter clockwise in the winter, clockwise in the summer. I turned off the auto icemaker in the fridge.CE

Posted by Cindi6843 on December 05, 2008 3:52 PM

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This is good to know! What about my Select Comfort Bed? It does not need to be plugged in at all times.

Posted by Wanda on December 13, 2008 4:08 AM

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you can save $30 or more a month by turning off your hot water heater. we only turn ours on in the evening from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. this gives plenty of hot water for 3 showers and dishes every night. just go to your breaker box find the one for the water heater and flip the breaker or buy a large appliance timer, set it and forget it. we also don't use the dryer except for under garments or if the weather is bad on laundry day. shut down your computer at night, or if your gone all day. our meter man came out twice in one week because he said the first reading was too low for the average month for us. we told him that we had cut back on our usage. he just smiled and said everyone should.

Posted by grits1 on December 14, 2008 8:03 AM

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A friend of mine set up his water heater on a timer so that it would only run during peak hot water times and shut off the rest of the time. need to find out how he did this.

Posted by smrtshppr on December 17, 2008 5:41 PM

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I encourage everyone that can to hang their clothes outside to dry. We have hard water so we must use a liquid fabric softener. The clothes still will be stiffer than what you like but the savings on the electric bill will make it worth it. I still use the dryer for fuzzy things and unmentionables.

Posted by joany on December 19, 2008 2:53 PM

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By turning off your water heater, you can actually pull more energy than if you just turnit way down. When the water is cooled off it must run non stop to re heat the water for shower temp. I did this and it actually saved me more by turning in down and not off.

Posted by sheralyn on December 20, 2008 12:26 PM

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I believe in the use of the energy efficient bulbs, they last for a long time. I started using them about 3 yrs ago and the first one just blew last month, we tend to keep certain lights on over night so in the whole scheme of things it did last a long time.

Posted by WJohnson on December 26, 2008 6:07 PM

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You will save more money turning your water heater down to the lowest setting rather then turning it off when it is not in use.
Gas water heaters are much cheaper to operate then electric.
On Demand systems use 50%-60% less energy then conventional gas or electric water heaters. If your hot water heater is more then 10 years old replace it with an On Demand system and it will pay itself off in the second year. Of course keeping the teenagers from taking 45 minute showers can become a problem.

Posted by Mike the Plumber on January 04, 2009 5:56 PM

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My brother-in-law has a "shop" that he keeps 1 light on 24/7. He put one of the CF lights in that fixture and it finally burnt out after using for over 1 yr. That's alot of time savings since he didn't have to change that bulb over and over again. It's on the ceiling about 12' tall.

Posted by anonymous on January 11, 2009 10:46 AM

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Hey I read somewhere that the CFLs burn out faster when they are installed glass down instead of base down. I haven't used them long enough to know. I was just wondering if anyone noticed..

Posted by jessi on January 17, 2009 3:34 PM

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Don't forget to clean out the sludge in the bottom of the hot water heater, maybe once a year. Just turn off the water and electric, then hook up a garden hose to the hose coupling at the bottom, then turn the release valve, and let the water out until it runs clear. Saves a bunch of money to do this !

Posted by Jill on January 18, 2009 4:05 PM

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I spin my clothes in the washer 3 or 4 times before I put them in my dryer. They are much drying and this takes very little electricity to do.

I have an electric dryer, so it takes alot more electricity to dry the clothes than a 2 minute spin cycle.

**TIP** Heating elements take the most amount of electricity. I suggest you look at how fast your electric meter spins with no heating elements on. Now turn on anything with a heating element - hair drying, curling iron, iron, electric stove, electric dryer go look at your electric meter now. You will see it spinning MUCH faster!

So if you have an electric drying spin your clothes dry an extra 3 or 4 times and save, save, save on your electric bill!

Posted by DeeDee on February 27, 2009 12:38 PM

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We have a game where the kids try and be the 1st to turn things off, the one that turns the most off wins a high five! We also installed a device that allows our home appliances to operate more efficiently by operateing at full capacity. I learned that most appliances operate at about 77% that meant the 23% of the electricity being delivered to my home was being wasted by appliances working at less then capacity. What was worse was I was paying for that 23% to the electric company and I was not even using it. Not anymore I use all that I pay for!

Posted by Elizabeth on March 19, 2009 5:12 PM

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