HELP!! Utility bills are killing us!

[lbrown1618]

gimme some energy conservation ideas!

Between our gas and electric we are paying $700 this month !!!! Thats absurd!

I'm always fighting with DH to keep the stat turned down, but he is always cranking it back up. GRRRR!

I know about checking for air leaks and sealing those up. What are some other ideas I may not be thinking of to help lower these bills?

[rmtrivas21]

Wow, that is a crazy amount, is there maybe a mistake in you bill, or do you have a big house? Well, some little thing you can do are, unplug everything when not being used, (coffee maker, toaster, phone charger, tv, etc), turn down the heat at night, turn off lights and switch light bulbs, check insulation. I know there are a lot of other things you can do, but that's all I can think of right now.

[shelleyf]

You might have to talk your dh into keeping it at a cold temp like 62 or 63! That is what I do and my bill is still almost 300.00! It is crazy and I can't afford it. Also wash clothes only large loads back to back if possible. At my house sometimes this works out and sometimes not. I wash in cold only. I try to cook 2 meals at a time, which is a pain but the stove and oven get used every 2 days. Sometimes that doesn't happen that way. Keep your oven open until it cools down so the heat can warm your house up. You already are paying for the heat to cook, mine as well get the rest of it for warmth. Believe me it does warm your house up quickly also. I am sorry your bill is so high. It is scary lately because they keep raising the rates too. It is not fair.

[tllgreene]

Call the company and ask to be put on a budget. I pay the same amount on my electric bill every month. So I pay less when the bill is high in the winter and more during the summer. I always turn down my heat about 4-5 degrees when we leave or go to bed also. But being put on a budget really helps because you know exactly what your bill will be every month. You will have one month that will be your catch up month. If your running balance is less than what you normally pay you will pay less. But if you didn't pay enough all year you will owe that remaining balance. Then they will refigure your new monthly payment for the next year by how much you paid for the past year.

[lbrown1618]

These are 2 bills that total $700 (one is gas, other is electric). We don't have a huge house, like 2000 sq ft / 2 story.

My parents are on the budget billing....i have thought about it, but i like not having much of a bill in the summer. LOL

"I" do turn down the stat when I leave or go to bed....DH is the problem. He is home during the week, during the day (works on weekends). So I can't control him...just complain about the bill and hope he listens!

I also keeps the drapes drawn since I heard that helps keep the cold drafts out and the warm air in.

The open oven is a good idea, but we have a 4yr old who would probably go touch it and get burned, so thats not gonna work.

Any more ideas??

[shelleyf]

[quote=lbrown1618;1508804
The open oven is a good idea, but we have a 4yr old who would probably go touch it and get burned, so thats not gonna work.

Any more ideas??[/quote]
Oops I didn't think of that. My youngest is 11 yo. No not happening for you. Tell your dh to put layers of clothes on so you can keep it cooler. Do you have ceiling fans? There is a switch on it that makes the fan rotate backwards for the winter. It doesn't blow cold air, it blows warm air. Just remember for the summer to change it back. Only takes a second to switch it. Alot of people use those energy saving bulbs that are so expensive. I was using them and didn't notice any difference in my bill and they do not last 5 years like they say they do. I still have some of them but I am not falling for that gimmick anymore. It is like 10.00 for 6 of those bulbs! That is insane to me. When not using your computer they say if you put it on sleep mode it saves. I do that and I don't know if it is true or not.

[Castingbread]

Maybe you could at least leave your oven open a little (not all the way) immediately after cooking a meal when the little one is busy eating? Closing drapes is a great idea--just open them when the sun is shining thru those windows for free solar heat. I hang as much laundry around the house as possible so as not to use the dryer and it adds moisture to make it feel warmer. Sheets and things on hangers are the easiest and dry the quickest. If you do it right before bed they should be dry by morning and not be in the way. With gas heat you can shut up registers and shut off rooms not in use--heat the ones your husband is in most of the time the most. We also have a little ceramic space heater we use in the room we are in the most so we can keep the thermostat down--they heat great without much electricity. Have you checked to see what your hot water heater is set at? After my dishwasher is done I open it before the drying setting and let the steam and heat into the room. If I boil water for tea or something else for which I will be pouring out the water I add a little extra and leave it set on the burner (off) with the lid off to put steam & heat in the air. You can shut your oven off like 10 minutes before a roast or casserole will be finished and it will finish cooking with the residual heat (won't work too well with cakes, but you can turn it off at least a couple minutes early even then). I also don't preheat when cooking most meats. If you have a toaster oven they use less electricity as does the microwave. You might also want to google energy saving tips. Hope you find some ways to cut the cost.

[MariaT]

gimme some energy conservation ideas!

Between our gas and electric we are paying $700 this month !!!! Thats absurd!

I'm always fighting with DH to keep the stat turned down, but he is always cranking it back up. GRRRR!

I know about checking for air leaks and sealing those up. What are some other ideas I may not be thinking of to help lower these bills?

Lori,
I had a motion light outside for the longest time and didn't realize that every time a car passed it turned on. I thought it was a nice convienience since there are no street lights in my neighborhood. But once I realized this I had DH shut if off and it made a huge difference in my electric bill! Do you have anything of the sort? Outside, inside..? Just an idea.

[enginerd]

My DH was always cranking up the heat. He is the only one in the household that complains about being cold. If I am cold I put on a t-shirt underneath my regular shirt or put on a sweater and I will put on my fuzzy slippers. And I always make sure DS is dressed warmly - many times he will wear a t-shirt over his long sleeved shirt. I got my DH a heated throw that he can use when he is sitting watching television, so he doesn't turn the heat up as much now. Another thing that I do is I leave the water in the bathtub after showers and baths until it cools to room temperature. You just have to be willing to get your hand in there and swirl it around when you finally let it out or it has a tendency to leave all of the yuck stuck to the bottom of the tub. This serves a double purpose - you are reusing the heat that was used to heat the water to warm up the room and you are also releasing some humidity into the air which is good in the winter. You might want to see if you can get an "energy audit". I know our utility company does these - you do have to pay for them but they will come and examine your house and even do air tests to determine where you are losing heat. Then they will tell you things you can do to save money.

[GJohnson39]

I am a SAHM, so I understand how your DH gets cold during the day. We have a programmable thermostat that keeps the house at 60-63 during the day, kicking up to 65-68 only after 3PM (1 hr before kids start coming home), then kicks back down after 9PM (theoretical bedtime). I keep polar fleece jackets available for when I get cold. I also try to run my errands during the colder programmed hours so I get out of the house. My husband is an engineer, so before we bought the programmable T-stat, he ran the numbers to determine what savings we could expect. After he saw the $$, he was convinced! An energy audit might be the ticket for convincing your DH to change. Maybe he could be convinced to try it for a month, to see if real savings are to be had.

We also changed over 1/2 our bulbs to CF (the quality of light is not significantly different, and we are already seeing savings). Slow cookers use way less energy that the oven. I also hang dry about 1/3 of our laundry (I have 2 teen girls, whose tops seem to need more delicate treatment), which reduces the number of dryer loads I do a week. I also heard that you should use your dryer for multiple cycles to benefit from carryover heat. Make sure to clean your dryer lint screen after every load to maximize efficiency, of course.