Saving Electricity Saves More Than Money

June 14, 2008 By Debbie Dragon

With the rising costs of living, most people don’t feel like their income is rising quick enough to keep up. Saving on electricity is one way you can reduce your expenses, but it also has a direct effect on the environment as well.

Much of our electricity is created by coal burned at power plants. Each time you turn on the lights or otherwise use electricity, you are contributing pollution into the environment. Some sources will say that a home generates more pollution than a car in a single year. It’s good that we want to save electricity to help reduce our expenses, but we can also feel good knowing that we’re doing our part to help keep our water and air a little cleaner, as well.

There are many resources online that tell you how to save electricity. Some are very detailed in the little things you can do to save, but if you focus on the appliances in your home that consume the most amount of electricity you will have better results.

Electric Heat

If your home uses electric heat, there are a few ways you can improve your heating costs and use less electricity. First, and probably the most effective is to seal up your windows, around doors, and any other place where heat is escaping. Windows can be sealed with weatherstripping, or with shrink wrap kits that you can purchase inexpensively from the home improvement store. These work by creating a plastic shield around the window and sealing out the cold air and keeping the warm air in.

Instead of running your electric heating system to warm the entire house, you could use space heaters to warm only the rooms you are using. A space heater costs less than $100 and will save you over $1,000 per year.

You can also turn your ceiling fans on low, or aim a small fan at the ceiling to help bring the warm air down and make the room more comfortable. Fans use very little electricity to run.

Washing Machines

The cost to run a washing machine is not so much the actual power that makes them work, but the amount of money you spend heating the water. Wash your laundry with cold water instead of hot, and save $145 a year or more.

Lighting

If you’re not using fluorescent lighting (emergency lighting or otherwise), your wasting money on electricity. The new energy efficient light bulbs allow you to save 30 or more watts per light bulb, and around $90 a year in electricity costs. They will also last longer than traditional incandescent bulbs, so for situations such as emergency lights where having the light on at all times is critical, go florescent. Don’t forget the visually impaired either, in addition to traditional emergency lights, you’ll also want a good set of braille exit signs to cater to the blind and to meet state and federal regulations.

Computers

When you’re not using your computer, put it in “sleep mode” and you’ll save around $60 a year on electricity. Also, if you still have the old style monitors, upgrade to an LCD as they use less electricity.

There are many ways we can all do our part to cut down on electricity costs. Not only will our bank accounts thank us for it, but the environment will, too.