Let's help each other's Electric bill

[allgrownup]

unplug that piece of crap freezer in your garage thats storing hot pockets from 1983 and half a moose you'll never eat.

 

[SmokinMom]

unplug that piece of crap freezer in your garage thats storing hot pockets from 1983 and half a moose you'll never eat.

:spit: Too funny agu, and sooo true.

 

[qwe]

Double Post~ Sorry

 

[qwe]

We close most of the blinds in the morning, so that our a/c doesn't have to work as hard when we get home.

Also, use a boiler (if you have one), rather than boiling on the stove. It's faster, and much more efficient.

:confused2:

Oh, and use LED X-mas lights.

iF your a handy man.. or wanna get someone to install a stove.. try usign a gas or propane stove seems to me to be alot cheaper or even use a small propane camping stove

 

[Kupunakane]

WoW HGB,
I never thought of checking that one, but I got the sweet to say yes to a wood burner, I have always loved the heat from those. This has also pleased my sweet since she is my booky so to speak. She says she loves to see the savings. So I'm like back in her good graces ha-ha-ha.
smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

 

[THCPezDispenser]

turn down the hot water heater
doesn't need to give ya 3rd degree burns out of the tap

Also, you can get tankless water heaters, they heat water on demand. The have a pricey initial investment, but claims that it will save 50% on your water heating bill. If you think about it, most of the energy in a hotwater tank is used just to keep it hot, while you are at work, over night, on the weekends while you are away, etc.

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=943929&Ntt=943929&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber

 

[allgrownup]

or you could just turn the temp guage down on the hot water heater......


i do agree completely with the "tankless" hot water heaters. Matter of fact i'm getting one in my new "green" house. Along with an a/c that purifies the condensation for drinking, and a few other really cool gadgets.

 

[Pot Belly]

I've got a Rinnai tankless water heater, and I love it. We have that and our clothes dryer is on gas as well. We do loads and loads of laundry. Our gas bill is $30.00 a month.

Would recommend a tankless to anyone, well worth the initial investment.

 

[fleshstain]

a few thing i did were:

1. changed out all bulbs to 12watt CFL's....and i mean every bulb....every bulb in our place was at least 60watters with a couple 100's....good savings there alone....
2. we don't use our dishwasher at all....we wash our dishes by hand and use the dishwasher as a drying rack....
3. unplug anything that's plugged in and not being used....saw on the news one night that almost everything plugged in is pulling electricity even if it's not on....stereo's and dvd players were the best examples....they have to pull electricity to keep the memory settings....
4. my light cycle is from 7pm-7am so i don't hit any peak usage hours and avoid the higher rates....
5. try to use the oven as little as possible....an oven set to 400 degrees is using as much electricity as a running central a/c unit....

that's about all i can think of right now....i think the biggest saver is the dishwasher....here in Texas a running dishwasher is the equivalent of a running 10,000 btu window a/c unit....

 

[upinarms]

What about electric Generators Honda sells than though I think the cheaper ones at least $141.00 run on gasoline which kind of sucks unless you grow in the garage but still sucks because burns up fuel . These days it's a smart Idea to be Green about certain things and well using gas in excess plus the cost just sounds kinda dumb but I do think that there has to be a better alternative generator. probably a stupid suggestion.....

 

[HippyInEngland]

Solar power is the way of the future

 

[g-13]

i changed all my bulbs to 13w cfl, i took out 22 100 w, and 13 60w light bulbs.
i unplug the washer and dryer until i use them then unplug again.
for heat i use the fire place and my bill is $100 a month.
all power tools in the garage are only plugged up when i use them.
and i have 3 fans, 1400w, 2 pumps, and co2 regulator in my grow room.

 

[shuggy4105]

don`t leave anything on "standby", loads of cash keeping all the electricals on ready.
energy saving light bulbs are great.
solar power is the way to go,"we" may be too late...

 

[DankCloset]

well my thoughts on this, the only truely way to fly off the radar on this topic is solar panels and batteries, with this setup your are not only producing all your heat, hot water, power, and not to mention the fact that any left over or if you have enough output you can sell your power back to the grid, there is absolutely no way anyone but you can determine the the ammount of energy u produce, hence no way of tracking the watts you use.

 

[rockydog]

Excellent post with some great ideas. I try keeping lights off, blinds closed during the day and only use the washer and dryer during low times. (not peak). Thanks a lot for all the ideas.

 

[Hashassin]

A pal of mine has an uncle in new hampshire who has a wind turbine on his house that fuels his electricity for his house no sweat...and he sells the extra back to the electric company ..it makes him cash..while it is nearly impossible for most to purchase one due to the fact they are in the 50grand park...one hell of an investment...work out a small model that can fuel a light/fans.etc = 0 and youll be in buisness..just a thought

 

[choking_victim]

I also replaced all my in-house lights with cfls,
and run my 12/12 throughout the night so it wont be in the peek zone.
...and turn that bathroom light out when you're done...

 

[pussum]

Some really good tips to keep the bill down. Seal your windows in the winter time and keep your theromstat at 67. The heat will stay in your home longer and the thermo won't be running all the time thus using more electricity. Also it is always good to keep your electric equpiment that you aren't using or don't use on a regualr basis unplugged because all items that use electricity to function will syphon a small draw of power even if they are off so long as they are still plugged into the wall.

 

[md.apothecary]

not sure if someone mentioned this, but here is a FACT for you...

5% YES... FIVE PERCENT of your electric bill is STAND-BY electronics!

If you see a light on your electronics that is "OFF" it's really on stand-by! This still burns a LOT of electricity! Even your TV set is in "stand-by" mode. This is how they get ratings even when the TV set is not on!

A surge protector... with nothing plugged into it, STILL burns electricity! Yep, it's still drawing electricity out of your plug.

Solution is to plug in ONLY electronic devices that will not reset memory if hard powering off. A hard power off is like unplugging it or flipping 'off' the surge protector.

You want to plug those hard powered devices into a surge protector you can turn off each night. This will actually save you money... serious money!

 

[ninjashoes]

When I buy a new house Im gonna seriously look at doing a full solar power conversion.

imo in the future we will all switch over