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Top Ten Ways to Save Money on Electricity

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• Mechanical Engineer says:

  February 15, 2009 at 3:19 pm

  Top Ten Ways to Save Money on Electricity
  
  
  
  1. Utilize Light Switches
  Try to keep your lights plugged into sockets that have a switch near the door, you are more likely to turn lights off if you can do it easily and quickly on your way out of the room.
  
  2. Install low Wattage Bulbs
  Replace lights that you leave on all the time with lower Wattage bulbs, maybe a 30W gives you enough light and you don’t need that 100W bulb. Compact fluorescent bulbs are not recommended, they contain MERCURY!!!!, see the post about CFLs. However, there are many different lighting solutions, so do some research and find out what is best for you.
  
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  3. Install Motion Detectors
  Install motion detectors for your porch lights. Its okay to leave one small light on all the time but why have the floodlights on all night, the motion detector will save you a lot of money.
  
  4. Keep your Fridge in the Dark
  Keep your cooling and refrigeration devices out of direct sunlight, don’t heat up what you are trying to cool. Also, make sure there is good airflow; if the fridge cannot get cooler room temperature air the efficiency of the cooling process will decrease costing you money.
  
  5. Organize your Fridge
  Keep what is stored in your fridge or freezer organized so you can leave the door open for shorter periods of time. Plus, do not take the water bottles that have heated up in the sun because you never brought them inside and throw them in the fridge. Let hot or warm items cool to room temperature first, cooling to room temperature does not cost you anything.
  
  6. Check for Damage to your Fridge
  Don’t overlook the obvious, make sure the seals on the door are sealed tight and not rotted away. Also, a squeaky fridge motor does mean bad efficiency because the noise is coming from misalignment of bearings or direct contact of metal on metal. In both cases this results in robbing the compressor motor of power and wasted energy means lower efficiency. You would not drive your car with the brake on would you?? Add oil or grease to the components if possible, or call a serviceman, besides how much more of that squeaking can you tolerate???
  
  7. Home Climate Control
  Everyone talks about this one but do you do it, go ahead and program your AC not to come on until 78degrees Fahrenheit. Also, don’t have your heater come on until 68 degrees F. In the summer let the cool air of the morning in your house so that your home temperature starts cool. Maintaining a cool room temperature takes much less energy than cooling down a warm room.
  
  
  
  8. Cover Your AC Radiator
  Just like with your fridge do not let your AC radiator, that thing that makes a bunch of noise outside sit in direct sunlight. Building an awning over the top of it to block the sun is recommended. HOWEVER, be sure to leave at least a 1 foot gap around the sides and a 2 ft gap on top. This thing needs a lot of air circulation so NEVER enclose it just shade it from the sun. If you want to save some serious money on heating costs during the winter invest in a HEAT PUMP, they are at least 3 times as efficient at heating then a simple electric heater.
  
  9. Turn off computer Devices
  Turn off that power strip when you are not using the computer, that way the printer or external hard drive you forgot to turn off will stop wasting energy. Also, turn your monitor off when you are away from the computer, it is like leaving a giant light on. Be sure to unplug your transformers from the wall, those chargers that are big bulky and take up three spaces on your power strip. Even when not charging a device they drain power from the wall continuously, that’s why they are warm even when you are not charging anything.
  
  10. Set the Power Save Settings on Your Computer
  Here is one everyone should do, right click on your computer desktop, now go to properties. Next go to screen saver and click on the button that says POWER. Tell the monitor to turn off after 15 minutes with the drop down menu. Then tell the hard disks to turn off after 30 minutes. Then click APPLY then OK, then OK to Exit. Now you will see some power saving. I do not recommend telling the computer to standby or hibernate they always seem to cause trouble. If you are going to be gone more than 45 minutes save your file and turn the power beast off!!!, it is that simple.
  
  
  
  Add on
  These have been some quick tips to save power, please feel free to add onto the tips with comments below.

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