Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I use human-powered tools whenever possible. Do as many cooking and other chores by hand instead of using some electric gadget to do the same thing. Put timers on things that only need to run for specific periods of time (indoor and outdoor lights, fans, etc). I don't leave electronics powered up if they aren't being used. I don't illuminate entire rooms if I only need to light a small area to read. Only keep occupied rooms fully heated and others cooler. Keep doors to those rooms shut. Pull insulated drapes over windows when its cold outdoors. Batch car errands regardless what the price of gas happens to be. This house has on-demand hot water. Once the heater fires up and heats what's in the tank, I do as many hot-water-dependent chores at that time to reduce the number of times it has to fire up again. Take shorter showers and use cold water for as much as possible. Don't run multiple smaller loads of laundry. Most things get a shorter low heat dryer cycle to get rid of lint, fluff fibers, and ease wrinkles, and but then get hung to finish drying after that. I couldn't care less if the fabric ends up a little stiffer. If I have some piece of clothing that can't tolerate being in a mixed load, it gets washed by hand and hung or flat-dried. Keep things clean: heater filter screens, lint screens, etc.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-17-2022 at 03:23 PM..
I air-dry clothes on racks until they're ALMOST totally dry, then use the dryer for about ten minutes with a dryer sheet for softness, scent, and wrinkle-removal...
More importantly, one wearing doth not a washing make! I hang up or refold gently worn clothes to be worn another day and, now that I'm retired, am not above wearing the same outfit -- sweats, mostly -- several days in a row, of course changing t's, socks, and underwear. I think we shower, shampoo, and launder to an almost neurotic degree in our society.
On that note, I keep my hot water heater turned off; it takes about 20 minutes to heat.
A few other little tricks: I'm use a little dorm fridge instead of the large, old, energy-sucking model that came with the house and use a toaster oven and microwave rather than heating up the stove. I close registers in all rooms but the one I occupy with draft dodgers under the door. Heavy insulated drapes (unfortunately closed most of the year, which is depressing, because it's very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer) over my historic single-pane windows.
Last winter, I ran a space heater in the one room I (mostly) live in, but I'm not sure that really saved much money -- and it was still cold. This year, I'm making greater use of a large electric heating pad under a throw whenever I'm sitting around watching TV, reading, doing paperwork, etc. Is that an improvement energy-saving wise? Not sure.
A light is used only for reading at night. Otherwise, enough daylight sneaks in, and the TV/computer screen provides enough for those activities. Sometimes candles if I'm doing a lot of running between rooms (I have tons of candles).
But I do live alone. Some of these strategies, obviously, wouldn't work for a large family.
With gas and electricity costs rising exorbitantly, what are some of your favorites?
Please share!
Live in the smallest house you can get away with. Large houses = large electric & heating bills
Don't own a dishwasher, or if you do own one, don't use it.
Dry most of your clothing on the 'low heat' setting
Turn the lights off when you don't need them on.
Turn down the heat
Live in the smallest house you can get away with. Large houses = large electric & heating bills
Don't own a dishwasher, or if you do own one, don't use it.
Dry most of your clothing on the 'low heat' setting
Turn the lights off when you don't need them on.
Turn down the heat
I don't know if the dishwasher one is as accurate these days, especially if you have a newer dishwasher that's more efficient. Family of 5 and we use the dishwasher every 2 days when it's full. Since it uses less water there's a cost savings.
We've been in this house for 2.5 years and the water and electricity bill is cheaper than our old house. Electric is averaging $138, water $53 monthly. It's not bad considering stove, water heater and heat pump are all electric. In the winter thermostat is at 72 during the day and 70 at night, summer it's at 76. We Have a programmable and WiFi connected thermostat so it's easy to change the temps especially if we know we'll be out the house for a while. We are in a 1500 sqft house for reference.
Before we moved in the house I had all the fixtures changed to LED that we were upgrading. If they weren't upgraded they already had LED bulbs.
In the winter, while homeschooling in the basement there's a space heater running on a timer. During the summer I shut off the vents there as it's naturally cooler.
In the warmer months we do hang dry clothes.
I have a smart plug in my home office. It turns off/on all the equipment automatically. I have 3 laptops, large monitor, and printer but with that setup it costs less than $18 for the year.
I get cost savings, but I also want to be comfortable in my house. My in laws pay lower utility costs, but their house is either freezing or sweltering depending on the season. I don't want to live like a hermit for the sake of saving money.
I get uncomfortable at 80 degrees, so that's when the a/c goes on. The sun is the hottest at around 3 pm so that's when I do my exercises under the a/c unit, and we regretfully pull the shades.
After happy hour to see the sun set, we turn off the a/c for TV watching. At midnight the bedroom a/c unit goes on for sleeping, set at about 72. These measures keep the electric bill at about $70 a month.
Plus we only do one load of laundry a week and hang most of it to dry (I'm afraid of shrinkage, lol). Sheets and towels go in the dryer.
No dishwasher, no garbage disposal and most importantly: no car!
If you have a time of use plan, make sure you do laundry, dishwasher, etc during the cheaper hours.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
