Novel Ideas for Lowering Your Electric Bill

Cutting electric bills has went from being a trend in the 70s to a necessity today. The old mantras of turning off lights and lowering the thermostat just wont cut enough to make a dent. Where I live, TVA or the Tennessee Valley Authority has raised its rates six times in recent months. What would have cost my grandparents ten to fifteen dollars thirty years ago costs us a 150-200 dollars. This has little to do with the cost of producing electricity and more to do with the devaluing of our monetary system, but that is an entirely different article.

Let's get to the meat of the subject. The two biggest eaters of electricity in a home are typically the dryer and the hot water heater with your HVAC coming in third. (This is contrary to TVA's statistics, but I still believe it to be true) The other hidden costs of electrical consumption lies in our overabundance of chargers and our technology which consumes electricity even when it is off. Your DVD, VCR, phone chargers, computers and even your television sucks up juice all the time. The best way to really cut into that bill it to change the way you think and use your technology.

First lets start with that largest consumer of electricity in your home, the dryer. Now the only way to truly bypass that cost is to build a clothesline in the back yard. Our dryer burnt out last year and due to lack of funds we were forced to use our clothesline for a couple of months. After seeing what a difference it made to our bill we elected to not replace our dryer. Now this is one place where you will need the complete cooperation of your wife. If she isn't into using a clothesline, then your stuck with that higher bill, there is nothing really you can do about this one besides installing a solar system which is exactly where we are going later in this article. Please keep reading because this is not the advice you usually get when it comes to solar.

Second lets look at our hot water heater. If you can afford it, you can convert to a heat on demand system which all though they don't cycle through electricity like your tank model, they still use more electricity than you have to. If you truly want to save you can build a solar hot water heater which is little more than a flat box painted black with a circulation tank. Install a capillary system of coiled copper pipe inside the box. If you choose to build one of these, install it so that it works in tandem with your existing heater and also install a drain to where you can empty it during the really cold months of winter.

Another option is to install an exterior wood stove in a small metal building outside your home. Pipe the water system to a metal box mounted to the back and sides of the wood stove along with another circulation tank. If you don't know anything about plumbing, consult with a licensed plumber to help you design your system or you can buy a pre-fabricated system. The cost of these systems are high and building one yourself can save your thousands upon thousands of dollars. You can also use the heat by piping the heat inside via underground duct work. This avoids that smell of woodsmoke which turns so many wives against wood heat. The biggest challenge with this type of system is filling it with wood. Research wood stoves and find one that will keep for ten to twelve hours or it wont be worth the trouble.

On to the HVAC system which is also one of the high consumers in your home. Look into installing an underground heat exchanger system. The efficiency of these systems is that they exploit the constant temperature of the ground to heat and cool your home rather than using the fluctuating outside air. These systems can be expensive, but I know of people who have built their own without the high cost. If you choose to try this, consult with someone you trust as these systems can be infected by mold or high moisture and increase respiratory illness.

Now to our gem, solar and wind power. This is where you can save money. One of the largest expenses in a solar system is the switching system to isolate your system from the power companies system to keep you from killing a lineman with back feed. What I propose is that you keep your solar system totally separate from your home electrical system. By doing this and only running low power items off of a DC system, you can cut costs by 25% with the smallest of solar systems. Try running your lights by using LEDs for lighting, install a couple of inverters where needed and run those items such as phone chargers etc of off your solar power. This way even a tight budget can afford a small system and use the savings to expand it. Another plus to this is that your not totally reliant on the power company.

Another way to cut usage is to put power strips with on/off switches so that you can totally cut power to televisions, DVD players and the like and prevent these sneak thieves from robbing you blind. There are millions of ways to save, most of these ideas you can implement on your own. If your not sure how to do something, ask questions. You would be surprised how many tradesmen are willing to share their knowledge just to show that they are capable. It isn't beyond the pale to hire tradesmen as moonlighters to help you build your own energy system. With careful planning and a bit of work and a few more dollars, you can cut your bill by seventy five percent. This is more than possible, however before you do anything, DO YOUR HOMEWORK....