10 Ways to Save Electricity & Save 1500 Dollars

Well I know for a fact there are other people out there who like to save energy so they can save money. I know my parents' used to yell at me for leaving the TV on or the porch light on when I came home. Everyone has been through it I'm sure. Well what if I told you I could save you $300 a year on your light bill? I bet your reading intently now. Well with these 10 tips you can save $300 + on your electric bill per year.

1. Turn the lights off and TV off when you're not in the room. Sorry kids but mom and dad were right on this one. When you aren't in the room turn off the lights and turn the TV off. The average living room/kitchen has a ceiling fan with 4 bulbs. This consumes about 200 Watts per hour. With 10 cents per kilowatt hour being the norm for electricity nowadays thats about 2 cents per hour. Doesn't sound like much but when you aren't in the room come on now! TVs use about 250 Watts per hour when they are on so that's about 2.5 cents per hour. Every hour you leave that junk on its 4.5 cents! Figuring the average TV is on 3 hours a day thats 7.5 cents a day for the TV and 6 cents per day for the lights! Turn em off when you're not using them!

2. Adjust your thermostat to a warmer temp in the summer and a cooler temp in the winter! It's alot cheaper to put on more clothes if it's cold in the winter than it is to crank that thermostat. Electric heat and A/C use a TON of energy per year. In cold climates an electric heating system for a 2000 sq ft house can use as much as 26kw per HOUR but I'm going to assume you don't live in the artic tundra so I'm going to take the lesser of the 2 and say 7941 watts (7.9kw) per hour. Yes that means if you cranked your heat for 17 hours a day you would spend $365 in a 30 day month. Slow that down to 10 hours a day and it's only $214 per month. A/C costs even more than heat. For every degree you change your thermostat (lower in the winter higher in the summer) you can save about 5% on the bill. SO in the summer wear shorts and go barefoot around the house and during the winter break out the extra blankets it will save you tons of money!

3. Plant Trees around the house. If you're in hurricane zone take this with a grain of salt because it could cost you a lot more if a tree falls on the house. For everyone else though trees will save money. They will shade your house during the summer but during the winter all the leaves fall off so the sun can get to your house and keep it nice and toasty.

4. Close and open your curtains or mini blinds! Close them at night to help further insulate your house with another layer of protection to keep the cold out and the warm in. During the day open them to let the warm sun come in. Reverse this in the summer and it will help keep you cooler.

5. Get dad, grandpa, or the local plumber to play with the water heater. Most water heaters are set to temperatures WAY too high. Does anyone really want a 150 degree shower? No you would burn yourself. Lower it down a little but make sure you keep it over 120 degrees because otherwise it can encourage bacteria growth. Also shorten your showers and that will not use as much water OR as much electricity for heating up the hot water.

6. Use the oven as little as possible in the summer and more often in the winter! Everyone knows ovens are HOT but did you know that they can really make your house hotter? I don't know about you but when I use the oven my kitchen gets HOT! That makes your A/C work harder in the summer and can save your heat some trouble in the winter. If you have to use your oven in the winter avoid doing it in the afternoon when the sun and temperature outside are at their hottest. One awesome way to avoid using that oven in the summer? Get a grill. Propane grills are not only more healthy but they will leave the heat outside of your house making for a delicious dinner and a cool place to eat it.

7. CLOSE THE DOOR! Dang it son how many times do I have to tell you to close the door when you go outside? Your letting all the heat/AC out! Yup sorry kids but once again your parents were right. Shut the stinking door and stop running in and out of the house all the time. It can save a lot of money... maybe even enough for them to buy you an extra game every once in a while. Parent's and not kids you can save a lot of money by keeping the door closed on hot and cold days. If it's nice outside cut off the heat or air and enjoy the fresh outside air by opening doors and windows!

8. Keep behind and underneath the fridge clean! Dust acts like an insulator so it makes things hotter right? Well the object of the coils on your refrigerator is to cool off the air in the fridge. If the area behind and under your refrigerator is dusty it can make your fridge have to work 25% harder!

9. Time to lose the beer fridge dad! Have a refrigerator in the garage that you only use for beer or small stuff that could fit in either a mini fridge or fit in the refrigerator in your kitchen? Then get rid of it. If it's your secret stash of booze your hiding from the kids they have mini fridges that come with locks on them so the kiddies can't get wasted off of your goodies.

10. Replace your regular light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent bulbs! This step will save you so much money I had to make it the last and most important one. Plus I actually did calculations so its long. In my house we used to use 60 watt bulbs all over the house. You know those cheapos from walmart that supposedly last 1000 hours? Well we had about 24 of those suckers in the light fixtures in our house. Let's do some math. 24 60 watt bulbs is 1440 watts per hour which is 1.4 kw per hour or 14 cents an hour. Using about 3 hours a day is the average I found online. Some are used more some less but anyway 3 hours times 14 cents is 42 cents. Holy cow 42 cents a day just to run your lights. Ok so a week thats $2.94, 12.60 for a 30 day month, and $153.30 for a year.

Plus the bulbs only last 1000 hours which is about 333 days. So you have to replace them once a year for 24 bulbs thats what $12? Ok so the cost of running the lights in my house is $153.30 + $12 = $165.

So I decided it was a good idea to switch over to those new Compact Fluorescent Bulbs. Sooo I ordered 24 of them. Well apparently the 24 watt versions I got are actually like 100 watt light bulbs so I only needed half as many. And even with half the light bulbs they are still brighter than the 4 60 watt bulbs before.

The bulbs ran me about $3.25 a piece BUT they last for 10,000 hours which is 10 times longer than the original bulbs. Ok so now instead of using 24 60 watt bulbs I'm using 12 24 watt bulbs. So every hour that is 288 Watts. Which is .288 kw per hour which is 2.88 cents an hour. Remember those other bulbs were 14 cents an hour? Well these new ones running 3 hours a day is 8.64 cents per day which is 60 cents a week, $2.49 a month (30 days), $31.53 per year.

Okay so the old bulbs were $153 a year and the new bulbs are $31 a year. But the new bulbs cost more so that cancels it out. Nope your wrong watch. Old bulbs were about $12 a year remember? Okay new bulbs cost $3.25 a piece and I only needed 12 so that is $39 total. Yes that costs more but remember the new bulbs last for about 8 years! So that's $39 for 8 years! Old bulbs were $12 a year times 8 years is $96. So you just saved another $57.

If you factor in the time it takes to change those old bulbs WOW thats alot of saved time.

Ok so let's add up all these tips combined!

• TV and lights on for 3 hours when not being used - 13.5 cents a day = $49.27 / year
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• Thermostat higher or lower by a couple degrees - $150 a month in extreme months so $900 / year
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• 3 - 8 can't really be calculated but I'll guess its at least $600 a year combined
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• Getting rid of the extra fridge - $300 per year
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• Swapping Lightbulbs - $191 per year

• GRAND TOTAL: Drum roll please! $2040.57 SAVED PER YEAR USING THESE TIPS!

  Okay so that may be a little high BUT you are changing A LOT and are going to be saving a tonnnn of money using these tips. Go tell your friends and save some energy and money!

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