This morning before I left the house, I flipped off the breaker for the (electric) hot water tank. I’ve been hearing how much energy a hot water tank can use, and figured if no one is home all day to use the hot water, then why in the heck am I heating it all day? Since I rent, putting a timer on the hotwater tank is not an option, but I can certainly flip the switch at the breaker box to the water tank (it has it’s own switch–I checked and they’re all labeled.) I read yesterday (can’t recall where) that it should take about 30 minutes for the water to heat up again, so I’ll flip it on 30 minutes before I take my next shower. (The dishwasher heats the water, so I use cold water for that, and have it heated in the dishwasher as usual.)
I’ve also done the usual–replaced all my lightbulbs with energy efficient ones, keep the shades drawn during the day to keep out the sun, only used the air conditioners (window units) when we’re home (and sleeping, as they’re in the bedrooms only).
So, what have you done to save money around the house?
We have replaced the light bulbs with halogen or compact fluorescent [I ‘hear’ fluorescents, so they are not in my bedroom/office space as it would drive me nuts after a while]
In the winter we do a lot of heating with a woodstove, and this was the year we had to finally replace the old one [not an efficient model at all and it was getting ancient.] with aspiffy one that has burners on top for pots/pans and a baking oven for bread, roasts and casseroles. I am seriously looking foreward to learning how to operate it. I see a winter of indian pudding, cassoulets, and casseroles of all sorts The wood is alread split stacked and aging for the winter =)
I also tend to wear warm clothing, and snuggle under blankets in the winter, and prefer to sleep in a cold room with lots of comforters, so we tend to leave the heat turned down all teh time.
Re the Original Post - you might be better off to lower the thermostat on the water heater and/or change the setting on the mixing valve, in terms of saving energy and money. How hot do you like your showers or baths? This will take some testing and some math, but if the hot water heater maintains its temperature with 8 2 minute bursts of energy spread out during the day, that’s more efficient than 1 30 minute burst of energy. You’ll need to figure out how often it comes on, and for how long. Ballpark experiment - check the electric or gas meter (never mind; it must be an electric or you wouldn’t be flipping a breaker.) when you’ve turned it off for a day and when you’ve left it on for a day. It depends on many factors - the insulation around the tank, where the settings are on the thermostat inside the heater, blah, blah.
Picture it like your coffee maker - it takes less energy to maintain the coffee at 85C than it took to get the water from 15C to 100C.
We do a similar thing around here with the furnace in winter - during the day, the thermostat goes down to 18C, just before supper it goes back up to 21C. We could set it to go even further down, but a) that’s not very good for the musical instruments and b) you lose what you saved during the day because the furnace has to work that much harder to bring it back up to temperature.
Just saying, it’s worth checking out to find out if you’re really saving anything or not. It could go either way without some investigation.
I own, but maybe your landlord could do this. We rent a hot water heater from the electric company, for like $4 a month. It’s on a separate meter, which gets a lower rate, due to the fact that it’s on a timer. It only runs during “demand” times, morning and evening. Sure the water is colder in the afternoon, but our electric bill is lower and we use less energy.
And since the electric company owns it, they pay for all the repairs and/or replacement.
My ACs (we don’t have central air) are set to 74 or 76, depending on the room and how often we use it. Considering that we’re very grateful that it’s “only” in the low 90s right now, it’s probably just a matter of what you’re used to.
I don’t turn the oven on in the summertime. We cook out a lot. All the heat that’s created in the kitchen has to be cooled out of the house, and it’s just a lot cheaper to not create it in the first place.
We have a few strategically placed fans, which will quickly cool us down without using the AC as much.
Incidentally, speaking of fans, Vornado brand is really worth the money.
Circuit breakers are NOT designed to be used as on-off switches. Doing this twice a day is putting years of extra wear on this circuit breaker. But the cost of replacing it when it fails will be on the landlord, not you, so you may be saving money by this.
Personally, in my browser bookmarks, just before the link to places I search various booksellers, I have placed a link to the catalog search page for the local library. So instead of buying a book, I first check to see if the library has a copy that I can reserve. Surprising how often they do. And I can do this for books that I am only slightly interested in – ones that I would probably never have bought with my own money. But I can get them from the library, and if I don’t find them interesting, return them quickly.
I’ve also found that I can use the Internet to cut down on a lot of errands that I used to do by driving around in my car. You can order postage stamps online, thus saving a trip to the post office (and delivery is free). When I need to have something printed, I can email the original along with instructions to the print shop, thus saving one trip there. Nearly all my banking can be done online, except for deposits.
I gave up on the local newspaper several years ago – I get news online now. Savings for both me, and the environment, too. (Actually, so many people have done this that our city recycling program is suffering – there’s been a major drop in the amount of newsprint recycled, and that is one of the recycled items that they can still sell at a profit to fund the recycling program.)
I buy stamps at the grocery store. Most of the clerks will even ask if you need stamps as you check out. Saves making an extra trip to the post office.
(I don’t know if all grocery stores do this, but all of the ones around here do.)
Hearing the CF lights is a real deal breaker for me. We got one free and put it in the bathroom. It irritates me in the same way a dog whistle must work on a dog, they come to it just so it will stop. I will not be getting any more CF’s.
You can turn out all the lights in the house, but it is the washer, dryer, dishwasher, fridge, that use most of the power. See what you can do about reduced use of them and you can cut your bill.
Round here, the government has been pushing for a “heat up to 20, AC down to 26” policy within the last couple of years (that’s 68F and 79F for you guys trapped in a timewarp over the other side of the Pacific).
We are Not Hot Weather People, and the idea of having to live at 26 all summer (particularly at night) is just unbearable, but we make up for it be only having the heating up to 18 in the summer, timed for a couple of hours at wake-up and bedtime
My water heats for one hour a day only. During the winter the heating comes on for an hour in the morning, and has to be manually activated in the evening. I have installed low-wattage bulbs throughout the house, apart from two dimmers. I dry my clothes outside wherever possible. I keep all appliances switched off at the plug to avoid standby trickle. I have installed a hippo in my toilet cistern. I cycle to work not drive whenever possible (9 mile round trip).
Also, I have taken my savings out and paid off my credit cards with them. (It hurt to do this, but it makes financial sense.) Apart from my mortgage, I now have no debt. Nor, however, do I have any savings.
I do a ton to save money, most of it is not environmental stuff.
It’s just me in the house so it’s easy to keep lights off, except where I’m at. Most of my lights are CFL. I work from home and don’t drive too much. When I do, I always stack my errands and plan my trip around town to use the least gas.
I’m at home all day and night, so I do have to keep the temp pretty normal all day. But I always dress half-naked in the summer and all bundled up in the winter. My electricity and gas aren’t that bad.
I think the garage door thing is so that you don’t spend electricity opening and closing the garage door for multiple trips in a day. If you live in the sort of place where it’s best to keep the garage door closed, then you need to keep the cars outside until you’re done for the night.
Dropped our landline and got a family plan. Saves between $80-100 per month.
In winter use electric space heaters instead of the gas furnaces. Gas is insanely expensive in our area.
Traded in our Jeep Wrangler (fully paid off) and it’s pitiful mileage for a much smaller, high has mileage car. Bought one that had been sitting on the lot for a year and came our even so no payments and about triple the fuel efficiency.
I own a couple of newspapers. I started swapping ads for some basic home services. Dance and Karate lessons for the girls, some home renovation, and that sort of thing. Barter is the new black, people.
Trimmed the staff back at the newspapers about 40%. Big savings there but a lot of personal pain for those in the crosshairs. But it’s that or die.
The wood is alread split stacked and aging for the winter =)