As a very young adult, I learned how to be conservative with energy out of necessity when I lived abroad in The United Kingdom. People dying from hypothermia trying to save on the high cost of heating their homes was something I had never heard of before as a young California girl. They thought I was crazy for baking a potato in the oven and I thought they were completely insane to hang their wash in the cold, cloudy and rainy weather. The weather was cloudy 90% of the year, yet every yard that I could see had an umbrella style clothes line in it. I also saw a lot of back yards traveling by bus and train to save on the cost of petroleum (gasoline). All that time I thought our reputation of being "fat, obnoxious Americans" evolved from our wealth. I now realize that attitude came from our wasteful American habits and customs.
Fortunately, our choice to conserve is not yet forced on most of us by extraordinary high costs; although it is headed in that direction. Still, the bottom line is using less energy not only saves dollars but it lessens the carbon footprint due to fossil-fuel produced by electricity.
Here are some ways you can use less energy and save more money!
*Use Compact Fluorescent Light-bulbs You can save about $30 over the lifetime of the bulb although they cost a little more up front.
*Keep an eye in your Thermostat Keeping your temperatures no lower than 78 in the summer and no higher than 68 in the winter can easily save $100 a year and will cut back on the production of hydroflurcarbons.
*Buy Energy Efficient Appliances Cut home energy cost by 50% when you use Energy Star rated appliances. Save even more when you don't use an automatic ice maker and water dispenser.
*Clean your air condition Filter You can save another $150 per year by changing the filter once a month and twice a month in the summer, reducing the work load on your air conditioner.
*Unplug your Electrics 40% of energy used by electronics is used by the standby "phantom" mode. The appliances that are the culprit of this are cable boxed, satellite dishes, Tivo, stereo systems, TVs , DVD and VCR players, cable modems and computers. Power strips can be used for these to turn everything off with one button. That alone can save $9 a month not mention all your kitchen appliances like coffee pots, microwaves, toaster ovens. Don't forget not to leave you phone chargers plugged in because all of these little things add up!
*Turn off the lights and fans Do a walk though before you leave the home and you will be surprised at how many lights can be left on. In the day time open the blinds or drapes before turning a light on or open a window instead of turning on a fan!
*Use a Low-Flow Shower Heads and was your dishes by hand Water heaters use 25% of the energy in the average home. Using less water conserves the energy to heat it. You will not only save energy you will conserve water.
*Hang dry your laundry you will save $0.49 per load for an eclectic dryer and $0.31 for gas. That's about $193 or $120 each year in savings.
Don't forget to opt out on using the oven for an hour for a baked potato when it only takes minutes in the microwave!
