Saving on power bill

[Frugal Bee]

One tip that I'm suprised that hasn't been mentioned here is to check your flue to the fireplace. If you have accidently left it open after your last fire in the winter, your ac is just going up the chimney. If you have an older home make sure that the flue is all there and intact and works properly. A friend of mine was having electric bills around $500. The electric company came out to do an energy audit for her and found out that her flue had worn away over the years and there was actually no flue left. Her heat was going up the chimney. She had a new flue put in and the next month her electric bill went down to $165. The other tip I have is to put the plastic child proof plugs into the outlets on the outside walls of your home. It will keep heat out in the summer and cold air out in the winter. You'd be suprised just how much cold air comes in through those sockets in the winter.

[saving-n-va]

NIPSCO !!

Oh bless your heart you have NIPSCO! Grew up in that area and my folks still have it. Pretty much the reason all the factories left in that area back in the late 70's and early 80's. I'll have to see if my folks know about that natural gas thing, their winter bills are outrageous. Thanks for posting that!

A few things we found that were drawing power in our home in Fla. The a/c unit lines were clogging so the a/c wasn't running to full potential. Got it serviced and it ran much better. Keeping curtains drawn on the sunny side of the house will help keep it cooler. (open them in winter for heat). Fridge in garage...huge draw in the hot Fla weather. Seals around the doors were not tight enough, even the inside door that leads to the garage needs to be checked. Computers, printers etc put on power strip and turn entire strip off at night. I have also heard that it is cheaper to run several fans instead of the a/c (or you can keep it warmer atleast). Using a crockpot instead of the oven. The new low energy light bulbs - check Home Depot, we got 4 for under $3 a few months ago...hmmm...thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

[CW&M Mom]

We put insulation right into the fireplace and we also had a couple of windows that were only single pained and put insulation there as well...that really helped too.

[Colinsgrandma]

We keep our house really cool in the winter about 67. We have electric blankets on the beds but I really like to sleep in a cool room. We have a propane direct vent fireplace [2 actually] when we are chilly we turn on the fireplace in the room we are in. We also have a timer on our water heater and we turn off the water heater if we are going to be gone for an extended time. We also have overhead fans in nearly every room, they bring down the heat from the ceiling in the winter and help keep the room cool in the summer. I try not to use the oven when it's really hot and on a really cold day I make something that needs a long time in the oven. I also try to do laundry only once a week....not possible if you have a big family or young kids.

[mnnice]

If you have vanity lights over your mirrors in the bathrooms, those use a lot of electricity. I noticed at Walmart last weekend they make the flourescent light bulbs for the vanity lights. They aren't curly, but round like the regular vanity light bulbs. They just aren't clear like the other ones. They are a little pricy, but I think are well worth it.

I'll have to get some of these. I have CFL in the standard fixtures and in most of the recessed can lights we have, but the CFL always looked to bad in the vanity lights in the bathroom so I stuck with the regular vanity bulbs.

I think not using your dryer (either gas or electric) is one of the best things you can do. We notice about a 200 kw per month decrease when we basically stopped using the dryer. It ended up being about $25 per month to dry clothes. DH and I both like to hang clothes on the clothesline anyway.