Two simple things that you can do, nearly cost free, to save on your electric bills: 1) Stop using a clothes dryer! String some heavy wire between a few trees and pin up your laundry. You don't need much (or any) Fabric softener, so you save there. There's no electricity used. No heat shrinkage. For dark colored clothes, turn them inside out before you hang them up to prevent sun fading. They will dry naturally, and smell fresh. 2) Invest in a water heater timer. You set the timer to turn the water heater on for an hour or two in the morning, and then again an hour or two in the evening. That way your water heater doesn't run all day, heating water that won't be used, and it costs less than $50. These are two of the heaviest users of electricity in your home.
Great tips! Also, try keeping the air conditioning off if you can. That's a huge power sucker. If you have a DVR, turn it off at the end of the night. That's been proven to be a huge power draw as well.
I sometimes unplug some things when I leave or when I am sleep. But I have to have my dryer, I it true that the clothes smell fresh but they are all stiff and I just don't like the feeling of them.
Lol, during winter you hang the clothes on the radiators that have to be switched on in any case Just joking. I don't like doing that really, so instead of drying clothes at home in the dryer (which consumes a lot of power), I get them dried at the laundrette nearby. Works out cheaper.
I guess that would depend on the laundrette. Aren't they charging about a buck a cycle? What does it cost to run it at home?
I never use a dryer. Even in winter, you get dry, windy days, so just time the washing to coincide with a good drying day. Our water heater is an instant, gas heater, so we only heat water when we need it. Electric water heaters are way too expensive. Remember also to switch off all the 'stand by' switches on the TV, computer, etc.
Depending on the climate in which you live, you sometimes have to use a dryer...clothes can't always be hung outside. When using a dryer, don't use the fluff cycle, take your clothes out as soon as they are dry. Before putting them in the dryer, shake them instead of throwing them in all wadded up-this will help them dry faster.
These are great tips. I didnt even know that there was a thing such as a water heater timer. We have drying racks that we use on nice sunny days here but I know we could be doing more. Other things we do are to make sure the lights are turned off, run the dishwasher over night in the summer and during the day in the winter so that the heat is being used to heat the home when its needed. We have a programable thermostat. We have small solar panels that we use to charge our phone and small things of that nature. I am a big fan of counting pennies and electricity use is a waster of pennies.
Well when it's hot inside your house/apartment, open the windows instead of turning the AC on or the fan on.
Dryers are faster, can handle more clothes at a time, and I hate insects. So no... drying them outside doesn't really work. And of course that is assuming you don't live on the second floor of an apartment building in a heavily populated neighborhood next to a public park... or anything like that. Also the state of Washington as well as Ireland, Scotland, England, any sort of Rainforest and places with gloomy dispositions. They have electric water heaters? Weird. I could never shut mine off regardless - I mean cold water is just really ineffective in terms of cleaning power and I hate the sensation overall. So yeah - you pay for what you get and what you need.
Hanging clothes on the line does depend on the area you live in. Our area is very humid, items hung outside on a line will stay wet and start to mildew. It would be nice if we could reduce the use of the dryer to reduce the light bills. We do unblug items to help save money, I don't know if it is reducing the bill very much.
I think a major appliance that you can do without and therefore save on electric consumption is the dishwasher. A couple of plates, utensils, a frying pan, glasses plus odds and ends will only take a couple of minutes of your time. Think of it as an investment in mother earth. No one said saving money or the environment was going to be easy.
I would have to totally agree with you. Yes I would love to have a dishwasher. I used to own one at my other residence, but it does run a bill up. Hand washing the dishes is so much faster actually and saves so much. It even burns calories!
The best means of saving electricity is simple, turn off the lights! Most people have the habit of leaving on lights when they are not in the room. Some people light up the house because they are bothered about what their neighbours think, it's sad.
Has anyone tried turning off the tv? That tv screen consumes a lot of electricity. I haven't watched tv for years. All I need is my internet connection. Another thing that can save electricity is to turn down the volume of your music player. All those amplifiers take a lot of power to run. If you listen with headphones, you can save a lot on your electricity bill.
I agree with these two tips. I actually do these things and I really think that I am able to save at least 3-5 bucks just by doing this. Just some information why this things work is that appliances that is used for heating or cooling something is an electric sucker! That's why we should really minimize the uses of these appliances or use it in the right time.
Good tips there! Another one to remember is that standby =/= turned off - remember to turn things off fully when you're not using them! That alone can save lots of electicity, but combined with them will save you rather a lot.
Nice tips eh? I agree with what Pandorical stated above. Turning appliance off wouldn't suffice because some little bit of power is still being used. I recommend you guys that when you are not going to use a certain appliance, you unplug it from the electricity to fully prevent electricity usage.
