whoa I shaved $80 off of my electric bill

[Froward69]

this month... all I did was utilize the power switch on the power surge bars to the computer and entertainment center. switched them off when I was not using them.. so to heat and light my house was $111.00 this month. last month before the turning off of everything... $191.00

I am sooo stoked I had to tell someone.

[silverweb]

1. Congratulations!

I've been doing that for some time now and it really makes a difference. I got a power strip for the microwave, too.

The only thing in my house that has a continuous power supply is the refrigerator.

[WolverineDG]

2. Hard to believe that stuff makes a difference, huh?

I couldn't believe how much I shaved off of my electric bill just by doing that. No else believe me, until they try it out themselves. :crazy:

dg

[catgirl]

3. Good job!!

My recent accomplishment was to get a friend to ditch the idea of having her energy sucking
light bulbs burn out before switching to LED bulbs.

[Inchworm]

4. Awesome!

I've been hearing about this for a while. Nice to see it done "in the field."

I may take on this challenge. I got rid of the entertainment center in living room 2 months ago because I never watched it. Turns out it was costing me about $50/mo to not watch it :crazy:

:hi:

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. I f you want to shave off more - get a switch handy to shut off your hot water heater

.
.
.

If you can schedule your dish-washing and showers/baths - you only need that hot water heater about 2 - 3 hours a day

BUT

If you got 6 kids - that's a little different

but hot water heaters are one of the GREATEST wastes of electricity

If your hot water heater is needed constantly, think about super-insulating it - even build a tiny room stuffed with insulation around it

believe me - it will save you quite a bit of electricity . . .

[Froward69]

6. Actually I found that

actually blowing out the pilot light on the furnace in summer months save about $150 between both of the ones I pay for.

April 1 is my target date. granted it gets cold once or twice before it really heats up for summer but the savings is worth it.

as I have a gas fired water heater it would cost more to power it down and reheat the water when I need it.

[2Design]

7. what is a power surge bar and how to you utilize this n/t

[WolverineDG]

8. aka power strip

you can get them everywhere. It's basically a strip of plugs that has an on-off switch. You put all your appliances on it (the ones you don't use all the time, not something like your fridge or stove). I've got my tv, dvd player, & cable box on one, my lap top & floor lamp on another, & my microwave on a power strip in the kitchen. I don't use the nuker all day, so I just turn it on when I need it. Same for the TV & everything else that I don't use until I come home at night.

dg

[2Design]

9. oh I thought you were talking about something special - I need to turn all of mine off more often n/

[NEOhiodemocrat]

10. thanks for the suggestion

I saw this the other day and have been turning off my power strips for the TV, DVD player etc. and another one with all my computer stuff plugged into it. Reading this again I see that maybe I should be unplugging my microwave also. I didn't know that sucked electricity like the other things. I can't wait to see my next electric bill!

[NEOhiodemocrat]

11. Thank you Froward69!!

Ok I started this mid meter reading during April, but now have it done for the whole month of May. Went from May 08 1,141 KWH, in a 29 day billing period with Average Daily Temp of 53 degrees to May 09 591 KWH, in a 32 day billing period with an Average Daily Temperature of 50 degrees! That is absolutely amazing to me! Almost totally halved the usage, and longer number of days. That is just turning off the power bar to TV and accessories (DVD player, VHS player, rewinder), and the one power bar that has the computer and all its helpers (printer, scanner, mouse, etc.) Oh also turned off the power bar for one small TV in bedroom that hardly ever use with its black box accessory. Now I am looking at everything in the house to see what else I can turn off! Do microwaves that don't have a clock on them still vampire electricity? My husband says they don't. I am for unplugging and seeing how low I can get this usage down. Thank you so much for the hint. I have averaged electric bill, but this will really bring it down when the next adjustment comes up. I can't believe the gigantic difference this has made in my usage.

[Lars39]

12. "Anything" with a plug does.

Even the plug to the power bar. :^) I took the Partridge Family seriously on this lesson. ;)

[WolverineDG]

13. yes nukers are vamps

if you want to know what time it is in the kitchen, get a battery-powered clock. :) I put my nuker on a power strip & it works just fine. It's only on when I need it. Now if I could just find a power strip for the stove......may just opt for plugging & unplugging it as I use it.

dg

[Ilsa]

14. I ran into only one problem unplugging:

The powerstrip for my TV and DVD player also has our HD Cablebox/DVR. Making it reboot the cablesystem everyday caused the box to wear out much faster.

[DarkTirade]

15. The only power I really use myself is my computer

and I set my computer to go into sleep/low power mode after only a few minutes. A half hour here and there may not seem like much, but it adds up by the end of the month.