Energy Saving ~ Tips & Tricks

[deeann1954]

Does anyone have a hot water timer? I heard on the radio today that approximately 13% of our home electricity goes to heating hot water. I have heard about a how water timer that turns your water heater off an on automatically at certain times of the day. That way you're not paying to keep the water hot all night long when nobody is using it. I was just wondering how long it takes to get the water up to temperature after it switches back on and how long it stays hot after it goes off. Is it more of a hassle than a good money saving idea?

We have a freind that has one on their electric water heater and so we decided to put one on ours. We bought it at the hardware store and DH put it on.
We have it set to come on 1 Hr in the morning and 1 hour at night. You can set it for any time. We also do our Dishwasher and Dryer at night before we got to bed, and I always wash clothes in cold water. We have seen a drop in our Electric Bill already and we always have hot water.
There is only me and DH, but still have seen a drop in the bill.

HTH

[frugalfamilymom]

We have a family of six and only three drivers. I drove a minivan for years but wanted to save on gas yet have enough room for when we needed to all go out together. I ended up with the Mazda 5. It says it gets 22 mpg highway, but I get 35 by not pushing on the gas. We can all fit in it, as it fits 6, but there is little room for anything else. But it is versitle so I can use it for groceries and such when all aren't with me.

We also stopped using the heat and use the wood stove. DH gets all wood for free when on jobs.

[frugalfamilymom]

I am not sure why, but our water heater seems to take forever to heat up and with 6 people, I am afraid to do anything that might limit hot water. We have limited our heat though. We use a wood stove now. DH gets wood for free from side of the road, down trees, etc. At night, we open all the bedroom doors and the heat from the stove warms the house. In the morning, I make sure the flu is closed and fill it with wood if it is very cold out. If not that cold, I let it go out. We keep the bathroom heaters on 50 so we don't free a pipe but we leave the heat off in the rest of the house and have for five years now.

[AniGirl]

These are all great ideas; some I already do, some I plan to implement, some don't apply to me (since I don't own a house, for example), but it's been so interesting to read this thread and see what others are doing to save energy! Thanks for all of the tips, everyone!

[billig]

Article on Yahoo! Green about the electronics in your home that are the most wasteful electricity users when turned off:

Energy vampires: Fact versus fiction | Yahoo! Green

[jgoodell473]

Check with your electric company. They have off peak hours when the electricity is much cheaper. This is the time to run the big appliances such as washers and dryers and dish washers. Turn your hot water heater down. Most are set to 140 degrees but 120 works fine and saves energy.

[stuartmerson]

1) Check to make sure the insulation on your water heater is good. You can do this by putting your hand on the outside of the tank. If it feels warm, your insulation is inadequate. You can get a water heater blanket from any hardware store for about $9.00. A timer for your water heater is a waste of money because the heating elements are thermostatically controlled. If your water heater is well insulated, it will keep a tank of water hot for 3-4 days without kicking on. Also, make sure the pipes that leave your water heater are insulated well too. This will further minimize heat loss. If you are going out of town for more than a week, shut off your water heater, stove, washer, dryer, TVs, etc. at the Circuit breaker. This will save a significant amount of $ for that month.
2) Shorter showers!!!!! Get wet and then turn off the water. Lather up, rinse repeat as necessary. If you shave in the shower, keep a big plastic cup in the shower. Fill it with water and turn off the water while you shave and use the cup of water to rinse your razor.
3) Take showers one person after another. A ton of water and electricity is wasted while waiting for the water to heat up. It takes a loooong time for the pipes to heat up on the way to the shower.
4) Change ALL your bulbs to CFLs (Compact Florescents). They use significantly less electricity and they are on sale all the time. Your electric company will even give you a few for free if you call them and they will give you coupons for more! They even have dimmable and three way bulbs now too as well as flood lights, so no excuses! LED lights are even better, but they are still kind of pricey. My wife and I did this and it cut our bill by $60! The first month of savings paid for all of the bulbs.
5) This one is by far the most important, but also the most logistically challenging. Make sure your attic insulation is very good. There are a lot of rebates from the government and from electric companies for this. You will lose an unbelievable amount of energy through your ceiling if you do not have good insulation.
6) Someone mentioned caulking, but also make sure the weather stripping around all you doors is good. If one door is not adequately sealed it is the equivalent of having a 4" x 6" hole in your door!
7) Line dry your clothes. When they are all dry, throw them in the dryer for 5-10 minutes to fluff and dewrinkle. An hour of the dryer for 6-10 loads of laundry is way better than 12 hours of dryer use! My wife and I tell people that we have a super high efficiency solar clothes dryer. They are always impressed and then are floored when I tell them that I bought is for less than $4.00. On another note, sunshine is one of the best disinfectants available and takes baby poop stains out of EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! We use cloth diapers for our little girl and her diapers resemble a crime scene when she poops. We wash them and hang them in the sun for an afternoon and the stains are gone.
8) Make sure the coils on the back of your fridge are clean. The less work your fridge has to do, the more you'll save. Also, make sure the seals around your freezers and fridge are all good and seal well. A little bit of loss here adds up to huge $.
9) This is a water thing, but we keep a couple of 5 gallon buckets in our shower. When we are waiting for the water to warm up, we fill up the buckets. We then use the water for plants, laundry, flushing the toilets, etc. We save about 100 gallons or so of water per week. That adds up to about 5,200 gallons of water a year or a month worth of water bills!
10) If you have a sprinkler system, keep your lawn cut as short as possible. Shorter grass uses about 1/3 the water of longer grass. Also, only water as much as you need to and make sure your sprinklers only hit the grass. Don't water the sidewalk, street or pavement.
11) If you have a flat screen TV, install a switched surge protector and shut off the surge protector when not in use. They can use over 100 watts of electricity when plugged in and turned off!

With all this said, My wife and I have two small children and live in Orlando, Florida. Our water bill is about $40 per month and the highest our electric bill has been is $120.00 in August! I work from home and my wife is a stay at home mom, we do use the AC in the summer and the heater in the winter. We set the AC at about 78-80 when we are home and about 85 when we are out for a longer period of time. An AC is most efficient when it kicks on once to cool the house rather than cycling multiple times to maintain the house cool.

Sorry for the long post, but these things have really worked well for us.