Living Frugal on Cape Cod

10 Ways to save Energy for FREE

May 4, 2008

If your electric bill has been high lately you may be looking for ways to save money on your next bill and the way to do it is to save more energy in your home. Just the other day I was talking with my mom and we were discussing our electric bills and we noticed that her electric bill was double the price of mine for the same month. We tried to figure out why this might be. Our electric companies were the same, our prices were the same, our homes are the same size and yet she was using DOUBLE the amount of eclectic than my house was. Keep in mid my moms house has propane heat, propane stove and propane dryer. My stove and dryer are electric and I still use less energy than she does.

If you are having this same problem and you want to lower your electric bill and save energy in your home just follow these simple ideas below and your next electric bill will be much lower guaranteed!

1. Lower your water heater temperature to 120 degress, this will use less energy to heat your water.
2. Wash your clothes in cold water. I just switched my washer to cold water and my clothes are just as clean as when I was using warm/cold.
3. Turn off lights when you leave a room. I do this everyday all day. Even if I will be leaving my office for just 10 minutes, I always shit the lights off.
4. Wash your dishes in your dishwasher, if it is newer it will use A LOT less water than hand washing.
5. Skip the heated dry and hot water pre-rinse cycle on your dishwasher, I never use these and my dishes come out clean as can be. ( Keep in mind I also have the cheapest dishwasher you can buy and it works just as good as a more expensive model.)
6. If your home has multiple floors, turn the heat down to 60 degrees during the day when your not using the rooms on that floor, then turn it back up at night. ( If you are heating your first floor during the day, your second floor will stay warm too, even at 60 degrees.)
7. Turn off your TV’s in all rooms when you are leaving your house and or not watching the Tv.
8. Take a shorter shower.
9. Turn your computer onto hibernate mode, this way when it is not in use it will use less energy.
10. Change all of your light bulbs in your home to compact fluorescent light bulbs. These bulbs use 75% less energy that standard light bulbs, they last longer and you can buy them at Home Depot for cheap.