by Alison Wiley
My diamond-cut household’s monthly electricity use is about half the national average. Besides saving more than $450/year, we’re lowering our carbon footprint because even here in Oregon, coal-burning fuels about 36% of our electricity. And our house is happy, not deprived (diamond-cut = chiseling our consumption down to the core of happiness).
Work first on your usage of everything involved in heating and cooling, since that’s where the bulk of energy gets used. In rough order of importance, starting with the most powerful changes:
- Keep the refrigerator and freezer well-sealed, closed as much as possible - and full. Put bottles of water in any empty nooks. They act like batteries helping to preserve the temperature.
- Adjust the thermostat in your electric water heater downward. Scalding-hot water wastes energy and is also dangerous.
- Put aerators on your shower-heads and faucets. These wonderful, inexpensive gizmos conserve hot water beautifully.
- Wash clothes in cold water, and only wash full loads.
- Use a clothesline (indoor or outdoor) instead of the dryer. Dryers are energy hogs. Our clothesline is in the basement. Hanging things up takes a bit more time, but in effect you’re getting paid for your time. Also, you’ve got 168 hours every week.
- If you replace your old refrigerator with an Energy Star model, get rid of the old one. Don’t just relocate it into your basement or garage to store beer, etc. – a second refrigerator increases your energy use dramaticallly, despite one being Energy Star.
- Replace your incandescent (conventional) light-bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFL’s, the coiled type pictured above). CFL’s use 75% less energy. You can get used to their taking a few seconds to reach full brightness.
- If a big-screen TV is important to you, choose an LCD instead of plasma. LCD uses half the energy. (We have a normal TV in the basement that gets no channels – we just rent movies occasionally. OK, call us weird.)
- Use the microwave for anything that will fit into it instead of the conventional oven.
- Unplug things after using them, i.e. coffee-maker, stereo, space-heater, TV, cell-phone and IPod chargers. Those tiny glowing lights signify an energy-sucking vampire load. Power-strips make this habit easier.
More resources: Lower My Electricity Bill;
Top Ten Tips For Saving Energy
photo courtesy of Dano
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1 response so far ↓
1 Deb // Nov 18, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Wonderful suggestions, we employ many of them.!
We unplug those energy vampires when we’re not using them. We use a toaster oven often, instead of the big oven. We wrapped our hot water heater in insulation (we’re saving for a new tankless one). The new tv is LCD, and the fridge is the highest energy efficient available on the market. We’ve gone completely CFL. Our one luxury is the hot tub (I have fibromyalgia and the hot tub is better than any medication) - but we lowered the temp and reduced the cycling/filtering time. We blew a thick layer of loose insulation into our attic. We also moved 1 hr north of Portland to a smaller town, and downsized into a small, one level 900 sq foot home that has fantastic energy efficient windows. We LOVE living in a small home! Altogether, our efforts and changes have reduced our monthly electric use by 40%. And this county only uses 2% of coal for its energy!
We also conserve water - I keep a gallon jug at the sink and catch every drop of cold water as I wait for the warm. I capture at least 1-1.5 gallons every day, great for the dog bowl, my many plants, and I dump excess into my rainbarrels. We have 4 rain barrels that we use for our large organic veggie garden ( we donate fresh produce to the local foodbank, and we garden-share with our neighbors - sharing labor and the fruits of it).
I also telecommute, so I often do not have to drive for days at a time. Hubby purchased on old, small ‘78 Toyata pick up that gets incredible gas mileage, and he keeps it purring like a kitten. When convenient & the weather cooperates, we ride our bikes instead of drive.
There are SO many things one can do to reduce one’s carbon footprint, and to conserve, and to reduce monthly financial output. I’m hopeful that the green revolution will now greatly expand beyond the progressive PNW. I feel very optimistic about it!
LOVE your blog, btw, though you are so much more enlightened than I. Keep it up & keep enjoying life, you are an inspiration!
xo
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