Tips on Frugal Living

[vagabond2]

Last night at Bible Study we had a new member join us. Turns out he is a (I forgot the title) person who comes in and does an evaluation of your household and its energy needs (for $300) So after BS we stood around for over an hour as he gave us all some conservation tips.

Today, I will be going out to purchase one of the hot water heater timers. He said this was a major energy drainer. 40%

Next, do not change the thermostat (it should be a digital for the best savings!) more than 3 degrees any way or it trips something which makes it use a lot more electricity. Another major energy drainer!

Use ceiling fans........both summer and winter.....it makes 2 degree difference and costs pennies.

Unplug for sure: If you can't unplug (like my computer) put on a strip and when you go to bed or out turn it off with the strip.........1 pull of electricity vs 9 invidual for me

change to the cfl bulbs.....he said original light bulbs were meant as an extra source of heat

Also, stagger powering up in the am (or any other time) and avoid the initial spike which adds $$$$ to your elec bill

I wasn't taking notes and it was 10 pm but you can bet I'll be asking more questions the next opportunity I get.

[churn111]

Originally Posted by vagabond2

Last night at Bible Study we had a new member join us. Turns out he is a (I forgot the title) person who comes in and does an evaluation of your household and its energy needs (for $300) So after BS we stood around for over an hour as he gave us all some conservation tips.

Today, I will be going out to purchase one of the hot water heater timers. He said this was a major energy drainer. 40%

Next, do not change the thermostat (it should be a digital for the best savings!) more than 3 degrees any way or it trips something which makes it use a lot more electricity. Another major energy drainer!

Use ceiling fans........both summer and winter.....it makes 2 degree difference and costs pennies.

Unplug for sure: If you can't unplug (like my computer) put on a strip and when you go to bed or out turn it off with the strip.........1 pull of electricity vs 9 invidual for me

change to the cfl bulbs.....he said original light bulbs were meant as an extra source of heat

Also, stagger powering up in the am (or any other time) and avoid the initial spike which adds $$$$ to your elec bill

I wasn't taking notes and it was 10 pm but you can bet I'll be asking more questions the next opportunity I get.

Got all of this covered except the timer on the hotwater heater. Good tips.

[Mrs.O]

Wow, ameeker, what a wonderful explanation and great tips!! I definitely can't do all of those but you are definitely doing a lot! Awesome job!!

[Mrs.O]

We already do not run our AC in the summer unless it is extremely unbearable. Plus we don't get any sunlight in the front of our house as we are facing the wrong direction...helps in the summer, sucks in the winter.

We don't run our heat (natural gas) unless unbearable. We use two small electric heaters (one for LR one for BR), which from what I can tell will be cheaper than the 100 dollar plus gas bill each month! They are turned off when we're not there or in the rooms for long periods of time.

We have not switched to the lightbulbs, but prob will once the ones we have in the cabinet are all used up.

We don't have much plugged in that's not in use, but will unplug what we can now that we've heard about this.

I'm sure most people already do this but...We shop around for ALMOST EVERYTHING we buy before we buy it....always pay the least possible. This of course is especially true for large purchases.

Garage/Yard sales are wonderful!!! We got our cherry with glass top and 4 padded chairs dining table in excellent condition from a yard sale for $100. That's much less than new in the store. We got our entertainment center for $100 from craigslist, hundreds less than a new one. If you need something, check those places first.
Our washing machine is about to die (which ticks me off because it's not even 4 years old). I'm hoping we can get it repaired rather than buy new, (but if we do, we'll check Craigslist first.)

[frugal21y.o]

The ones that we do are unplug everything that we don't use as often. One of my lamps in the living room is always unplugged, we always charge our cell phones and unplug it after the charge is complete. I only run my dishwasher and clothes washer at night. They say that the rates are lower at night than in the day. Check with your provider to see if this is true for you also. Another thing which I just started this month is...We have 2 spare bedrooms (no kiddos) so I had Dh put up a clothes line in the biggest of the two and over top of the heat register, I wash my clothes at night then hang them up, the next morning they are completely dry, even jeans, and sweaters! I have heard that the dryer is one of our biggest energy consumers so I'm trying to cut this out all but for a few minutes per load to fluff up clothing items if they need it after being dried on the line. Also we have a programmable thermostat and I have been keeping it at 65 day and night, I hate the cold but I've learned to just bundle up better instead of running around in a tshirt and comfy shorts. Hope that helps you. In December my bill was only $111, last month it was higher because I got away from trying to conserve and had the heat cranked in the house so it was $144, also we had an increase in our distribution and rider charge due to the outage we had back in September. Ticks me off that even though we didn't have electric they are backcharging us so that they can make their money back on what they lost! We will see what it is this coming month though, hopefully lower.

[cboyer]

the electric companies are the worst.......we had a hurricane that left us w/o power for 17 days! when they finally restored power they tried to charge all of US for what it cost to repair all those downed lines, etc....OMG, this neighborhood picketed City Hall and created such a ruckus that they changed their minds..........thing is we ended up paying for it anyway since we pay taxes and it just came out of a different pocket instead of the electric bill..I mean ppl were getting 5 and 6 hundred dollar electric bills.......I have never seen such anger since the civil rights riots.........

[vagabond2]

Originally Posted by cboyer

the electric companies are the worst.......we had a hurricane that left us w/o power for 17 days! when they finally restored power they tried to charge all of US for what it cost to repair all those downed lines, etc....OMG, this neighborhood picketed City Hall and created such a ruckus that they changed their minds..........thing is we ended up paying for it anyway since we pay taxes and it just came out of a different pocket instead of the electric bill..I mean ppl were getting 5 and 6 hundred dollar electric bills.......I have never seen such anger since the civil rights riots.........

Just wait.....they are now talking about building power plants in 2020 and starting to raise rates now to fund them

[cboyer]

Originally Posted by vagabond2

Just wait.....they are now talking about building power plants in 2020 and starting to raise rates now to fund them

.....................I smell trouble brewing...................

[DeniseD]

Just wait.....they are now talking about building power plants in 2020 and starting to raise rates now to fund them

Who? Enron again?

[vagabond2]

Originally Posted by DeniseD

Who? Enron again?

no, the utility companies are ......including Consumers.....*they* have decided it's time to revamp power plants again as many of the ones we have are going off line........it stinks but its the reality of being a consumer...

think of this: those who live in a town.....how many times do you see darkness? I live in a rural subdivision and the lights from the houses around me and the street light are pretty bright even at 2 am....

What if we said that say from midnight to 6 am there will be no street lights and no outside lights on can you imagine the drop in electric need??