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Since moving from a condo a few months ago (where our utility bills were buried in a high monthly maintenance fee), we are much more aware of our electricity use. Lately, we've been considering how we could further reduce our monthly bill - we come up with an interesting pilot that we're employing for the next month. Here are the details;
Operate in the off-peak hours
We've adjusted our schedules to cook and clean in the off-peak hours. After examining how we measure up to the energy consumption of our neighbours (our utility company provides online access to plethora of charts) we've decided to try to lower our standing from the average category to below average.
Use timers
Timers are nifty little devices that plug into your lamp & outlet and control when the lights go on and off. Not only are they convenient, but they also allow you to change exactly when you want them to be activated.
Boycott the oven
After some research, we found a typical electric oven uses about 5,000 watts! We decided to purchase a convection toaster oven that would allow us to bake many meals (even rotisserie chicken!) and avoid using the oven as much as possible. The toaster oven we chose uses only 1,500 watts, and takes the same amount of time to cook similar dishes - and we got it for half off! In the end, we will cut our electricity usage by more than one third when it comes to baking - something we do a lot of.
Stay tuned, we'll provide you with all the details on how we did.
If you have any tips for us, please send em' our way!
Nice and informative post. I would also like to contribute some tips for saving electricity consumption which i found on http://www.manageme7.com/blog.. make it a habit switching off appliances when going out,finding a comfortable temperature for thermostats or a.c. and keeping unused rooms sealed off.
ReplyDeleteGreat additional comments. It is the small changes we can all make that will add up to substantial results - not only financially, but in terms of sustainability as well. Thanks for sharing such a relevant article.
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