[juliee]

Make sure that your water heater is turned to it's lowest level. Not only is this a great safety measure with kids but can save a lot of $ too.
I've heard it explained that leaving it turned up is the eqivilant of leaving your car running in your driveway on the off chance that you'll need it. It has to constantly heat that water all day long.
We also use the toaster oven instead of the big oven for small meals.

[juliee]

Originally Posted by kfrye

Door sweeps are a very important issue in stopping air infiltration (hot/cold air going in/out under doors). Use weather stripping, plastic over windows if they're old... storm windows add about an R1 to any window (windows are basically holes in your house through which your heat/cool escape).

This is so true! I was playing hide and seek with our son and I hid on the steps to our basement. I could not believe the amount of warm air that was being sucked down to our unfinished basement!!! I added a stick on door sweep for $3. Just cut to fit and it works wonders.

[kmeiding]

I wish our electric bill would go down. We have no AC and gas heat so that's not included in the electric. My roommates however (4 college students) leave lights on all the time. The TV too. Our electric bill is always over $200. Cant wait to move into my new apartment.

[littleprincess]

We recently remodeled our one bathroom & installed a sun tube. We love it, the only time we ever have to turn a light on in there now is at night (and sometimes not even then)

We also do a bunch of the things already posted.

[tomsnukie]

I noticed a dramic change in our power bill, and I wasn't really trying so I thought about what we had been doing diffent. I had actually expect the bill to go up since I do not work anymore and I am at home allday but it droped about $30. these are the things that I think may of had an effect.
Got a new dry'r and cleaned out the vent that leads to the outside, now it only takes 20min to dry a load.
I have allways washed my clothing in cold water, but I just wanted to put that out there because it is a good idea.
I'm a little bit tec savy, so I replaced the power sorce in our computers with energy efficant ones since mine is on allmost all day.
I like to munch alot during the day so the only time i use the oven is at night for dinner or to cook for my husband when he gets home late at night.I like it a bit warmer then most so I keep the AC set to 78 durring the day and only turn it down when my husband calls to say he is on his way home at night, we used to have it set to 73 all summer long even when we were both at work.
another good idea is to keep the shades down when you want your house to be cooler, like in the summer, and keep them up when it is cool out so the sun can heat up the house a little.

[4my5kds]

Originally Posted by OldTinGrl

Good grief! I'd party like it's 1999 if my bill was $51. Our bill was $271 last month and our house is a little over 2000 sq. ft. Our home is 100% electric, it's new (4 yrs.), we have new appliances (energy saver), and when they were building our home, hub and I went through and insulated between all inner-room walls (so we know our home is well insulated).

My question...how on earth does your bill run so cheap??

Update: Our bill came for this month and it was down to $147..much, much better. It helps that we haven't needed a heater and of course no AC yet.

The difference maybe because that you are all electric. If you divided that amount in two-like those of us that pay electric and natural gas, the amount isn't as bad.

[Ellbei]

YESSSS! Ceiling fans make SUCH a difference! Bravo to all the posts above!!! LOTS of energy saving info to share!!! Our electric bill has been running about $56/month, but we live in New England, so there's part of the answer to that one.

You might want to have some icepacks on-hand for those really hot, humid days ... I use them in the summertime & they are SOOO comforting if you place them on the back your neck.

[couponjen]

Last month I started unplugging things that weren't in use. For example, my son has a boom box in his room that we use to play music to help him go to sleep. I started turning it off and unplugging it as soon as he was asleep along with his sound machine (turned off and unplugged during the day). I also started unplugging my laptop from the wall. I was amazed to see that all other things being equal, our bill went down almost $10 from the month before!

I'm sure not all of that $10 was from those three things, but any reduction is fine by me!

[joshmamabear]

DH and I are seriously considering installing solar panels. We are researching on it thoroughly and weighing the ROI if we decide to have them.

[sabrina23]

Purchase a jacket (sweater) for your water heater.

Purchase a programable thermastate (really helps)

Redirect the airflow in the house often through vents

Change out lightbulbs for energy savers.

Close blinds during the day (summer) open during day (winter)

Wash clothes with cold water on off peak hours

Hand wash dishes (we have a well so no water bill)

Large house bill between 75 - 150

[busymolady]

Have you called your electric company and asked if they have a level payment plan? I have one of those and I pay sixty-eight dollars a month every month regardless of the temp. outside.
I would suggest you buy (assuming you don't have one allready) a crockpot. They are great for cooking in and won't heat up the whole house. If you like to grill you could do that and make all the meat for the week and that would just be something to reheat in the microwave. This prior idea will save not only your house from the heat but makes meal planning easier if the meat is all cooked ahead of time. I hope this helps you. Good luck in your endevers.

[pjwalz]

I also have the time of day pricing and save a ton!! From 8:00pm-8:00am (I picked those hours) and the weekends we have a much cheaper rate. I do not do any laundry outside of those times (I hang out in the summer). Our dishwasher has a delay on it, so after dinner I load the dishwasher it set the timer to start after 8:00. We just got a new dehumidifier and it also has a timer to turn off, so when I leave for work in the morning I set that to go off before 8:00. Another tip, do not use the hose on your dehumidifer, I let the water collect and use it to water my plants and the garden, another way to save a ton! Love all the tips here!!!

[NCmom]

I will have to check on the time of day things, 8pm to 8am would work for us really well! We do so many of the things listed and our bill was still outrageous. Found some website that listed things that may be increasing your electric bill and it said that a pool pump can draw up to $80 a month in electric usage. I immediately unplugged the pool pump and our bill was about $70 cheaper. As it is pool season now, DH just installed a water heater timer (cost $44 at Lowes) to the pool pump and now it is only running 8 hours a day. I was thinking I'd just unplug it in October and let it go until March, anyone with a pool have any ideas? We have a salt system in the pool which I love, but I was thinking I could just put in shock In March and bring it back.

For drying clothes, DH found two clothes racks next to dumpsters behind clothing stores. I spray painted them with black rustoleum spray paint that is for rusty metal. They look fine and I can dry clothes on them in my backyard or in the garage if it is bad weather.

[eemommy]

I turned of the heated dry function on my dishwasher and just open the door to let the dishes dry after the wash.

I wash (in cold water) and dry all my clothes on the same day so the dryer stays warm and takes less time as the loads add up.

[sevencats]

Make sure you empty out the lint catcher in your dryer and the hose too. We need to do that soon. Run the dishwasher only if you have a full load, the same for the washing machine.

We also use the ceiling fan in our livingroom and try keep the thermostat set at 77 or so in the summer and at 69 in the winter. Our bill runs about $230 a month, and we're also using the energy saving light bulbs. Our Aldi's has the 100 watt ones for $1.99 each so we buy them when we shop.

[kansaslaura]

I do a lot of baking so I always carefully plan oven usage. When it's pre-heating for cakes, I pop in something I want warmed for breakfast---not using the microwave. Once it's heated I keep it going steady, working not to let it stand empty and hot for anytime at all. I'll also heat for lunch or supper with the residual heat left in the oven when finished. (A warm oven makes an excellent toaster, I pop in sliced bread, English Muffins--bagels, warm muffins, etc.)

In winter I open the door and let the heat out to warm the area.

I hang out nearly all our laundry, I even bought some heavy dowel rods and hubby made me an inside rack MUCH more sturdy than the ones you can buy and put that near the wood stove in the winter for a 2 fold benefit--humidity in the air and dry clothes!

...no one mentioned water savings but I'm here alone most days and I follow "let it mellow if it's yellow" and save A LOT of water by not flushing many times a day.

[sevencats]

We do the "mellow/yellow" thing, too! It's just hubby and me here and it does make a difference in the water bill. I think I heard somewhere that it takes 7 gallons of water to flush a toilet, at least with older toilets.

[cancer_survivor]

Lots of great ideas!

[DawnG]

Originally Posted by kansaslaura

I do a lot of baking so I always carefully plan oven usage. When it's pre-heating for cakes, I pop in something I want warmed for breakfast---not using the microwave. Once it's heated I keep it going steady, working not to let it stand empty and hot for anytime at all. I'll also heat for lunch or supper with the residual heat left in the oven when finished. (A warm oven makes an excellent toaster, I pop in sliced bread, English Muffins--bagels, warm muffins, etc.)

In winter I open the door and let the heat out to warm the area.

I hang out nearly all our laundry, I even bought some heavy dowel rods and hubby made me an inside rack MUCH more sturdy than the ones you can buy and put that near the wood stove in the winter for a 2 fold benefit--humidity in the air and dry clothes!

...no one mentioned water savings but I'm here alone most days and I follow "let it mellow if it's yellow" and save A LOT of water by not flushing many times a day.

I don't have a water bill we have a well but I have heard that if you put two one liter bottles on each side of the tank on your toilet, put pebbles in the bottom and fill with water and put the lids on it will save you alot of water when flushing.

[patville]

Take advantage of free energy audits, Energy Star rebates, purchasing fluorescent light rebates, and basically any other energy-saver rebates your local utility offers!

[lincolnx3]

OK Texas and Florida here in LA we feel your pain. My suggestions are costly up-front but save in the end. We took our $200 all electric bill to $91, excluding the brutal summer months.

Here is how we did it:

1. Solar screens on all windows. $20 per month savings for a $450 investment. In addition, house is a few degrees cooler on average - immediately. That was 4 years ago.

2. New W/D: No complaints here but a new high effeciency (HE) front load washer/dryer at $2000 brought the electric bill down $40 per month. The washer has a built in heater so it does not pull from the hot water heater. I have seen this brand LG Steamwash for $1600 lately. It also uses less HE detergent and I don't add anything to the was to make it 'better'. I do still use dryer sheets. <>

3. Clothes line: With the HE washer, clothes are dry in less than 1 hour on the line because they come on so dry from the wash.

YES - MAMA GOT A BRAND NEW BAG!!

4. A/C Vent, we change it every 2 weeks in the summer. It makes a difference.

5. Close all doors during the day. Inlcluding rooms not frequented. I do leave the ceiling fans run until I shut the doors.

6. Window coverings. Go for the honeycomb shades, they are 2 layer, huge heating/cooling difference.

7. Thermostat in attic. Our attic gets over 100 regularly. Upon inspection, we found
the battery???? in the thermostat was out. A quick change brought it down to the 90s. We also regularly check the home and attic thermostat's now twice a year with the smoke alarms.

8. Once Fall arrives, late OCT here, we are planning to add the solar film to the floor of our attic. This film lays out over the attic floor or staples to ceiling and reflect the heat/light. Our neighbor used this and says the house is about 3-4 degrees cooler at all times.


Currently we are evaluating green living with the addition of 2 solar panels and possibly a turbine (windmill). This is a sizable investment, even with the many incentives via tax credits. At this time, we tabled the discussion until we move into our 'forever' home where we could reap the benefits of a life with NO electric bill.

Hope these tips help. They worked in our home, which is about 7 years old.

[kimmyann123]

the light bulbs really do make a huge diff.my elec bill was literally cut almost in half! woohooooooo

[lincolnx3]

Originally Posted by joshmamabear

DH and I are seriously considering installing solar panels. We are researching on it thoroughly and weighing the ROI if we decide to have them.

Our family is too. With all the tax incentives, you should be able to get it done at a fraction of the cost. Most homes (2000 sq ft avg) are running $35,000. OUCH! Big tax credits though. Find a company that will reduce their fee and wait on Uncle Sam - that is a true consumer friendly company.

Also, we found that a turbine was a better investment. The family I know about put one in and powers his house, ran his meter backwards and now has a credit with the electric company! Now, he powers his home and the 4 adjacent homes with his turbine because 'he can'. I asked him 'do you charge the neighbors? he replied, for what, air? that is free'. Now that is neighborly.

[lincolnx3]

Works if you put a brick in your toilet tank too. (for us girls, that is the part along the wall)!!

It displaces the water and requires less to fill up the tank, reducing your water bill.

[kimmyann123]

i wish he was my neighbor