Your Energy Diet - Simple Steps To Begin At Home

Well now it"s time to to look at your home and we've got some simple steps that will pay rewards immediately. What rewards? Your electric bill. Start these now and you will see some reduction on your next bill. BUT, the following month will definately be lower. Let's begin.

1. Change your light bulbs. EVERY ONE OF THEM! That's right. Change ALL of your bulbs to the money saving flourescent bulbs that you can find just about everywhere now. The energy usage on flourescent bulbs is from 60 to 75 % less than incondescent bulbs.

For us, we found that our electric consumption was an immediate 10% reduction. Not much you say considering flourescent bulbs cost more. Well, 20 bucks is 20 bucks. After 2 full months of flourescent usage, what we saved on our electric bill paid for the new bulbs plus we were ahead a few cents. Also, the new bulbs last 10 times longer.

2. Turn your "on stand by" electric items off. What are these? It's any electrical item that you believe is off but it's not - your coffee maker, your microwave, your computer. Look around. You turned your computer off but you can see a small light on the speakers or on the monitor. There's a clock on the microwave and on the coffee maker. Each of these is drawing electric ALL THE TIME!

But, how can you since they don't have on and off switches? Simple. Put power strips with on/off switches on your outlets and then plug your electric items into the strips. You can get a pack of 2 simple strips for under $7.00. You could go a little higher in price and get strips with surge protectors which will provide protection for your items especially your computer and microwave. Another benefit of strips is that they expand the number of outlets you have (but don't get carried away in plugging in to much to one strip as this will blow a circuit breaker.)

3. The last simple step we wish to mention is to keep your thermostat at a temperature that will be cost effective and what you can bare. In the winter, about 70 degrees in the day time and 66 at night. In the summer, no lower than 78 degrees but better at 80 (day and night).

Using these steps as outlined above will save you money. We know they work because we use them ALL THE TIME religiously! We started these ideas last summer and have reduced our electric usage (and our bill) substantually. We can't give you an exact figure because we have applied a few more advanced steps which we will cover in the next post.

We might also add that a cooler house in the winter is better for your health since germs don't do well in the cool areas. That's why hospitals and your doctor's office seems cooler. They keep the temperature lower to prevent the spread of germs. Now, go start saving on electric.