Conserving Energy
By 1grnthmb
@1grnthmb (2055)
United States
July 21, 2008 5:40pm CST
How green are you? The new standards for conserving energy are to make sure your home is well insulated, install double or triple pain energy saving windows. Turn off lights and appliences when not in use.Use CFL Lights. Only run the heater or air condition when you are home and last but not least turning your summertime thermostats to 85 degrees.
OK! We rent. We can not afford to add more insulation to a house we do not own not install new windows. And it would be wasteful for us to do so because we would just be improving our landlords property value. Yes we would save money in the long run but who knows how long we will be here. The last has we lived in we did all kinds of work to it because the owner saud we could live there forever. Then it sold and the new owner told us he wanted the house for himself and refused to pay for the modifications we made to make the house a better place to live.
We do turn off lights in rooms when we are not in them. We have changed all the lights in the house to CFL lights. But it is hard to unplug the appliances that we are currently not using. I never did understand why they all have to have a standby mode in the first place. But if you unplug them then it takes a long time to start back up. We have to leave the computers on so they will do their virus scans and defragging and all that stuff. But we do turn off the monitors.
I have personally found that it uses more energy to heat a house back up or cool it back down if you turn off the heat or air while you are gone. And often it takes a long time to get to a comfortable temperature.
And last, I could not tolerate living in a house at 85 degrees. I have enough problems tolerating 78 degrees that we currently have the temperature set to.
Have you made any changes to conserve home energy? Would you turn your thermostat to 85 degrees and be comfortable? Have you changed all your lights to CFL lights? Do you turn off the heater or air conditioner when you are not home? Do you unplug your appliances or even your cell phone charges when not in use?
3 people like this
13 responses
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
21 Jul 08
Correct me if I'm wrong, but electricity is a renewable resource, is it not? It comes to us by way of lightning, water, wind, and probably many more ways. It is also quite inexpensive. Running a home on natural gas, or propane is what causes problems.
In our house, everything runs on electric except the heater and hot water heater. The heater is left on 70 all winter due to having small children in the house, including a baby who's currently only 6 months old. The hot water.. well who can cut down on that usage?
In the winter our power bill is a minimum of $400 a month. In the summer it rarely gets above $200.
I don't do much to conserve energy, as I see no need to. I am stocking up on electric heaters though, in hopes to keep our gas bill down this winter.
1 person likes this
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
22 Jul 08
We have the opposite energy use. In the winter we are under $200 but in the summer we get $600 electric bills. The natural gas for heating is cheap compared to electricity. If I owned this house I would put in solar panels and flick my nose at the utility companies. I do not know why electricity is so high here. But with the 100 degree whether in the summer it is need to cool the house down.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
22 Jul 08
Hey, I'd like to thumb my nose at the utility company regardless, lol! Can you believe they sent me a shut off notice for $50 because it was a day late? Ridiculous!
I'm lucky I don't live there. I would probably keep the a/c on 70 or less all day as well. I can't stand it much warmer than that. Unfortunatly I don't have central air here. Just a room a/c in my bedroom.
@tanniebabe78 (2934)
• United States
22 Jul 08
I am not too much of an energy saver, but not by choice. If I had my way, lights would be off all the time, only the glow of my monitor eating electricity. I do try to keep things unplugged and I have some of the lights switched to CFL. I will be installing more soon enough. For now, I try to use the ones that have them in currently.
1 person likes this
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
28 Jul 08
Sounds like you need to train your family to be conservative also. When you buy new CFL lights do not buy the cheapest ones. They have given us nothing but problems and are often slow at coming to full light which is really irritating in places like the bathrooms.
@limcyjain (3516)
• India
22 Jul 08
We have taken several steps to cut down wastage of energy. No way have we made any compromise regarding the comfort levels we were enjoyoing earlier but still manage to save energy. The use of T5 28w tube lights and cfl lamps is one thing. There are others which would make a handsome contribution. Cleaning filters of the airconditioner on a regular basis keeps the amps of the ac on a lower side. Avoiding wastage of water and instalation of water level controller is another very effective measure. Keeping out food articles from the fridge to let them move towards room temperature before heating them also pays. Small things but whem we make them our habits they save a lot on energy front.
@cowgirlheart (114)
• United States
9 Nov 08
We live in the desert. $50 of our electricity bill is fees - $12.00 Service free - $32.00 "DELIVERY CHARGE" (what the heck!)!
I keep our thermostat at 80, our blood is so thin, anything below 80 and we're wearing sweaters.
If it's not in use, it's unplugged.
If we're not in a room, lights and fans are off.
I've changed almost all of my lightbulbs to CFL's.
The house is fairly new, so it's well insulated with new windows, shutters and blinds.
Only wish it had solar panels - with all this sunlight available, you'd think the builder would have thought of this! Someday we will have solar panels and wind turbines and will sell the power back to the power company and charge them FEES!
Although - I must add, the power company here has just "complained" (article in local paper), that they'll be $40 million short in their income, due to people conserving TOO MUCH!
I feel so sorry for all the executives who will only make a couple of million in bonuses this year. Excuse me, I have to get a hanky. No new mercedes this year!
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
13 Nov 08
How can a utility company come up shot. They bleed us dry with their over pricing. Out town has its on utility company and if you live in town you pay their exorbitant prices which according to a recent newpapper article is the highest in the state of California. We have a higher right then even in Los Angeles where they have to import everything.
It is good that you are conserving. The solar panels and wind turbines is a good idea.
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Nov 08
We do a lot of that. Actually we use less electricity in our newer, larger house than we did in our older one which didn't have any insulation!
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Nov 08
considering how high the property taxes are, SOMETHING should be low! 
@Elixiress (3878)
•
22 Jul 08
We have double glazed windows and insulation, so that does a little towards being green. We turn off lights and appliances when we cannot see us using them for the next 15 minutes by this I mean that if I am going to sit downstairs then I will turn the upstairs lights off, but if I am just going down to get a drink and bring it back up then I will not turn off the lights. We also do a little bit of recycling.
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
28 Jul 08
I do not know how, but they say that the double glazed windows can save you thirty to sixty percent on your energy bills. The only draw back is they are very expensive. We had our house prised out and it would cost $9000 to do it. I do not know how many years it would take to recover that cost with energy savings?
@Elixiress (3878)
•
28 Jul 08
We got ours done years ago when everything was a lot cheaper. We recently got a few windows replaced as the seal was breaking and it cost us £400, which is $800.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
22 Jul 08
Personally, these are some very good thoughts, and ideas, and something we could all benefit from if you can afford to do them. But I know personally myself, I could never tolerate somewhere left at 85 degrees in the summer. 78 for me is a little too warm still as well. I prefer around 70 in the summer and around 65 in the winter. I am Diabetic, so for me, it is to be comfortable more than too warm or too cold. As for the double paned windows, right now we are in a Condo that is for sale, but we have found a New place we are wanting to buy that does have the double paned windows, so we know that will help when we can get that place as well.
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
22 Jul 08
Well as you know there is only me and Gissi living here in the Flat
My Electric Bills are awful and I am actually fighting the Company at the moment because of it
The only Lights that are on is the ones that are needed
I have always been like that and not had Electric on where it is not needed but the Bills are still high
I rent to, but it is well insulated in most of the rooms here so it is not to bad
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
28 Jul 08
It is a wonder how they charge a high bill for little usage. Are you signed up for any of the programs for low income or disabled people. If not I think you would certainly qualify. You should also have them do an energy audit to find out what is using all the power they say you are using. Often they find faulty metters or faulty appliances that use up the power.
@GardenGerty (160696)
• United States
22 Jul 08
I have the new lights, and it also helps not to produce so much heat from incandescents. We use as little heat and air as we can stand. I turn the ac or heat off more frequently than hubby. I would rather hang clothes on the line than use a dryer, I use cold water in the washes. That is as far as I can afford to go at this time. I will grill out in the summer rather than use the oven or stove. I cook in other small appliances as well.
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
28 Jul 08
These are good additions to saving electricity. Drying your cloths on a cloths line really saves a lot and they have a nice fresh smell. We also use smaller appliances when ever possible. The toaster ovens are very well used. And all of our wash is done with cold water except towels and sheets which are washed in warm water.
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
21 Jul 08
Well, I rent my apartment and it's in a really old building, so I doubt it's that green. I don't use much electricity though, because I am really not at home that much during the day, hense I don't need to have the lights on when I am no there. Even whe I am there I don't need them on most of the time, because with my poor vision I don't need to rely on light that much.
@karthiganesh (103)
• Singapore
22 Jul 08
Good Discussion!
We can think about these also.
* Put the only relevant and limited items in Refrigerator.
* Plan your cooking
@cjgrooms (4456)
• United States
21 Jul 08
Okay just for the record, I admit that i would die from heat stroke at 85degrees. I have mine set on 74during the day and 78 at night. I changed all my lights several years ago. We do own our place and if and this is a big IF we can ever afford it we are going to change the windows. Most of my plugs are indeed unplugged at night. I also have ceiling fans on in the rooms we use during the day and a fan in my bedroom at night. I am sure there are a million other ways that i could be "greener" but for now that is as good as it gets.
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
22 Jul 08
That is interesting. We run our cooling the opposite. 78 during the day and 74 at night. None of us can fall to sleep when the temperature is higher then this. We also have fans in each room to aid in the cooling. That is great that you unplug your appliances when not in use. And I also would have heat stroke at 85 degrees. I do not even like going outside when it is above 80 degrees because the heat gets me.
