Do you try and save energy at home?

[aaronc879]

I keep the heat down as fas as is tolerable and never use A/C. I always turn lights off when not in the room even if returning in just a few minutes. I only do 4 loads of laundry per month(usually). My electric bill still averages $120/mo.($200 in winter/$50 in summer) Everything is electric from heat to hot water and appliances and everything else. My place is only 860 sq ft and I don't think I could cut back any. If I did it would be literaly painful in the winter and my co-workers might complain if I never take a hot shower after 12 hours of manual labor.

 

[easysurfer]

I got one of those Kill-A-Wall things and am playing around with it. It's interesting to see get a readout to what things are projected to cost around the house. It was surpising for me to see that my netbook charger took so little energy to run and running an air purifier took more than I thought.

 

[FreeAtLast]

The only one that I do on a usual basis is to turn off the stove burner before it is completely done. It is not so much to save energy, however, I don't have to worry about the food burning if I get distracted for a few minutes.

I also use a laptop.

 

[davemartin88]

Sorry, I couldn't resist

Shortly after we got here mid-March I went outside at 7:10pm to see a well publicized extremely large moon - very impressive, much like a "harvest moon".

6 weeks later it was still daylight at 9pm. I'd quite forgotten how quickly the nights get longer in these latitudes, even allowing for the clocks springing forward.

Off topic but when we lived in England, we took a vacation in Scotland near Aberfeldy in mid summer. We rented a converted mill house that was beautiful except for the skylight in the bedroom and trying to sleep at 11 pm with light pouring in. Interestingly, they had put blackout style curtains on the windows?

 

[Brett_Cameron]

If I had a motion-detecting lighting system then I'd want a manual override on the switch. It bugs the crap out of me when I'm quietly reading in a room and the sensor turns out my lights. CFLs and LEDs may be a better payback than a motion detector.

The ones I have have a manual override. Handy for when you just have to sit in the bathroom in the tub or on the pot for a while.

 

[HFWR]

Use CFLs in most of the house, with LEDs for nightlights and under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. Have a laptop AND a desktop (my recording studio), but they stay in hibernate much of the time. Installed radiant barrier - roll type. Have electronic ignition on furnace and water heater. And am generally a cheap bastard...

 

[pimpmyretirement]

I've played around with less heating / cooling and shorter showers. They _could_ save me a few hundred dollars a year. I decided it's worth the buck a day to be comfortable.

Everything else I've looked into, the certain payback just isn't there.

 

[Mike1968]

In my townhome, I turn off all circuit breakers except the Fridge and downstairs lights. All others I turn on when needed then flip them back off.
I have been using 1+kwh from 8am till 630pm. total is ~7hwh per weekday and about doubles on the weekend.

The oven, A/C and elecrtic water heater are the 3 energy hogs.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Because electricity is included in the rent around my neighborhood, most people don't care. Around Christmas time, the place is VERY lit up with all the decorations. And the a/c comes on whenever you want (it is new Orleans, after all).

 

[Mulligan]

I've played around with less heating / cooling and shorter showers. They _could_ save me a few hundred dollars a year. I decided it's worth the buck a day to be comfortable.

Everything else I've looked into, the certain payback just isn't there.

I agree. Although the summers are hot and winters are cold where I live my peak energy bills in winter and summer don't go above $130 for my 1400 sq foot house so it's not worth it to me to do anything. Having natural gas heat I'm sure helps in keeping bills down.

 

[Sue J]

I do lots of things to save energy, except for cutting my shower short. I've tried and no matter what I do I still need the same amount of time. It's ok, I deserve it

I'm conservative with lights and heat or A/C. On the other hand, DH turns lights on but does not turn them off. I can come in the house and walk from room to room just turning lights off. He also lets the bathroom fan run forever even when the A/C or heat is on. I just don't get it.

Our city has always given away free light bulbs and back when CFLs first came out they were one of our options so we've been using CFLs for a long time. They really make a difference.

We finally replaced all our windows (LowE w/ argon) last fall and noticed a big difference in the heating/cooling usage and then in January we replaced our ancient furnace and also the A/C and again noticed a big drop in utility costs.

Our biggest energy savings came from our son moving out last October. His computer was an energy hog and having one less person had a nice impact on our water usage.

 

[sailor]

In my townhome, I turn off all circuit breakers except the Fridge and downstairs lights. All others I turn on when needed then flip them back off.

Mike, a lot of circuit breakers are not designed to be used as switches. Some of them have designed cycle life as low as 300 cycles. Only circuit breakers rated SWD (switch duty) should be used as switches.

 

[FUEGO]

Mike, a lot of circuit breakers are not designed to be used as switches. Some of them have designed cycle life as low as 300 cycles. Only circuit breakers rated SWD (switch duty) should be used as switches.

A good example of (possibly) being pennywise but pound foolish.

I have a number of devices that use between 0.5 watts and 3 watts when in standby mode or off. I don't worry about switching them all off from a main breaker. I may be "wasting" $20-30 a year, but that is a small price to pay for stuff to be on whenever I need it.

Similarly, I stopped worrying about squeezing every last cent out of keeping the house as hot as bearable (summer) or cold as bearable (winter). Also I stopped nagging DW about ridiculously hot and long and high powered showers. This spendthrift nature about a/c, heat, and hot water probably add up to a hundred or maybe two hundred bucks a year in energy costs. But being comfortable year round is worth it, given the many many thousands we pay for our house every year. An example of paying 1-2% more to get way more than 1-2% more comfort.

 

[FinanceDude]

Every time I turn off a light in an empty room, DW turns it back on. It is a zero sum game...........

 

[TN_INVEST]

A couple years ago I spent $200 on some blow-in attic insulation. Wasn't real difficult to blow that stuff in the attic, and we immediately noticed a difference.

I just wish there was an easy way to put insulation under the house in the crawl space.

 

[Nords]

We finally replaced all our windows (LowE w/ argon) last fall and noticed a big difference in the heating/cooling usage and then in January we replaced our ancient furnace and also the A/C and again noticed a big drop in utility costs.

I'm glad to see this. We're replacing all our east-facing windows with low-e double-pane tinted versions. I'm looking forward to having our old sweatboxes of a familyroom & master bedroom turn into chillers... and that'll reduce ceiling fan run hours.

I'm conservative with lights and heat or A/C. On the other hand, DH turns lights on but does not turn them off. I can come in the house and walk from room to room just turning lights off. He also lets the bathroom fan run forever even when the A/C or heat is on. I just don't get it.
Our biggest energy savings came from our son moving out last October. His computer was an energy hog and having one less person had a nice impact on our water usage.

Before we went photovoltaic I was seriously considering having our daughter pay the electric bill. Back then it was averaging about $100/month, and I'd give her that amount of money in her allowance. She'd get to keep (or pay) the difference. $10-$20/month wouldn't be much incentive to me but it'd be huge to her-- in both directions.

It's always easier to reduce consumption than it is to raise production, and I think the biggest "consumption reduction" is going empty-nester. Exhibit "A" is our electric bill's annual consumption broken down by month. See if you can figure out which months our daughter was home for 1-3 weeks...

 

[obgyn65]

I do not practice any of these tips, but I am careful about using too much water (i.e. turn the dishwater on only when full, etc.).

Does anyone practice these supposed money saving tips? I have never heard of the last three.

 

[thoreau]

I found a great 32 page document on line for making R9+ shades for your windows. Since I live in a winter cold climate, and live in a house with an enormous amount of windows, these shutters have saved me mucho bucks in fuel costs in the winter:

http://www.warmcompany.com/warmwindow/Warm.pdf

There is anotehr page for saving energy with great ideas at:

Home Energy Conservation

 

[easysurfer]

Well, I caved and just forked over plenty of $$$ for four GE LED light bulbs:

Amazon.com: GE 62180 9-Watt LED Soft White A19 Light Bulb: Home Improvement

I'll be using them for my bathroom vanity light. The advantage to this bulb over other LEDs is light goes in all directions instead of only forward.

I know, that's alot of bucks to spent on light bulbs. At least half of the price was covered by my Amazon credit card cash back points.

Looks like I may never need to replace them again the rest of my life

 

[ERD50]

Well, I caved and just forked over plenty of $$$ for four GE LED light bulbs:

Amazon.com: GE 62180 9-Watt LED Soft White A19 Light Bulb: Home Improvement

I'll be using them for my bathroom vanity light. The advantage to this bulb over other LEDs is light goes in all directions instead of only forward.

I know, that's alot of bucks to spent on light bulbs. At least half of the price was covered by my Amazon credit card cash back points.

Looks like I may never need to replace them again the rest of my life

Interesting, but they will need to drop in price a lot more before I'm interested. That's quite an investment.

I wonder if they really will last as long as stated? Many of my CFLs have died way early.

Using your Amazon credits is irrelevant, those were already 'earned' and can be used on anything. If you want to count the 3% you earn using Amazon, OK.

-ERD50

 

[youbet]

Interesting, but they will need to drop in price a lot more before I'm interested. That's quite an investment.

Yeah, at $35 per bulb, I'd have to take out a heloc to re-bulb the whole house!

I did buy 2 LED replacements for one of the 12v incadesent fixtures in my camper. The LEDs use approx 10% as much energy as the 12v incadesent automotive-type bulbs they replaced. We like to dry camp and wanted to have one fixture we could use without worrying about running down the camper battery (which we like to save for running the exhaust fan in summer or furnace fan in winter).

The LED replacements were $20 each, so $40 for the fixture. They're actually 48 SMT LEDs mounted on a PC board with the necessary support circuitry and a short cable and adapter which plugs into the bulb socket. We had a choice of 2 colors, warm and bright white. We went with the bright white and that was definitely the right choice.

 

[PatSea]

I installed a wi-fi enabled thermostat on our HVAC system about 2 months ago and I'm seeing some significant savings in our natural gas useage. Much of the savings comes from setting the temperature down to 55 when we are gone for a few days to visit the kids or while we are on vacation. I can monitor the temperature on my smartphone while we are gone, and then turn the temperature back up about 2 hours before we arrive back home.
The other reason I installed it is for peace of mind while we are in Florida this winter. I can monitor the temperature of our house (set at 55). If the HVAC system fails for any reason it will send a text message to me when the indoor temperature reaches a set point that I have selected.
I expect to realize significant electricity useage reduction next summer from useing less cooling while we are gone.
The thermostat cost about $99 at Home Depot and I installed it in about 8 hours.

 

[farmerEd]

I do all the usual stuff to save electric, not only to save money, but also to not 'waste'. I would suppose most ER types are opposed to 'waste' as well.

My brother and his wife recently spent around $35K to go solar electric on their house (this is before tax credits etc). I figured I would need to spend at least 50K, and probably a whole lot more to tame our $250/month electric bill. Instead I took the same amount of money,and invested it in utilities (namely national grid), paying almost 5%, and that covers my electric bill each month.

Won't save the planet, but does give me a better return on my investment and no maintenance.

I am all for renewable energy (in fact I heat 100% with wood from my own property), but solar electric needs better cost/benefit ratio before I can jump in.

 

[ERD50]

...
My brother and his wife recently spent around $35K to go solar electric on their house (this is before tax credits etc). ... Instead I took the same amount of money,and invested it in utilities (namely national grid), paying almost 5%, and that covers my electric bill each month.

Won't save the plant, but does give me a better return on my investment and no maintenance.

Interestingly, it seems like Google came to a similar conclusion:

Google Ends Renewable Energy Research Program | Joseph Baker

Launched in 2007 the Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C) initiative's mandate was to bring the cost of renewable energy down, mainly solar power, to compete with the cost of coal-fired generation.
...
For Google, the end of RE>C does not seem like a failure as much as it does a clear business choice to not invest more money in technology that may have a long way to go before it is competitive in the market.

I installed a wi-fi enabled thermostat on our HVAC system about 2 months ago ...
The thermostat cost about $99 at Home Depot and I installed it in about 8 hours.

That's pretty cool, but I'm really 'old school' when it comes to thermostats. I've got the old round mercury-bulb-bi-metallic strip kind. I believe I save more energy with this set-up, over any automatic setback type. I set it only warm/cool enough to be as comfortable as I choose at that time, rather than some arbitrary time/temp.

In the heating season, before I go to bed, I turn it down all the way (essentially OFF). It'll drop from 68 to maybe 60 by the AM, but we are already under the covers and stay warm. DW rarely decides to turn the heat up when she wakes - she says shes running around to get ready, she doesn't feel chilled. I sometimes leave the heat off until ~ 4PM. If I'm active in the house, I don't even notice that it is only 60-64. But by evening, we'll be sitting around and then 66-68 feels better. If I do feel chilled during the day, I turn it up, but that's actually pretty rare. It's surprising what you can adapt to, and it doesn't seem like 'sacrifice' at all.


-ERD50

 

[Zathras]

Best bang for your buck is generally better insulation and sealing of drafts.
Anyone considering solar should first do conservation measures. Then solar if you want to go further.