We are two weeks into the New Year and as part of Operation Mortgage Payoff,
I am attempting to cut our expenses as much as possible. One way of doing this is to cut back on our
utilities.
I will be the first to admit that our home is an energy
“hog” and I hate that we use so much electricity. The house is mainly run from electricity with
the exception of our heat which is propane.
I thought that by purchasing a smaller water heater earlier
in 2012 to replace an old 80 gallon inefficient tank (the previous owners of
the house had a hair salon on one side of the house) to a 40 gallon efficient
tank, that we would see a noticeable decrease in our electric bill. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
I have been racking my brain to think of ways to cut down on
our energy use and this is what I’ve come up with.
Dryer
Back in July, we purchased an energy-efficient washer and dryer. I enjoyed being able to wash an entire load
of laundry from start to finish in less than an hour and a half since owning
this new set. This changed January 1st.
According to the Energy Star efficiency rating, our washing
machine uses $16 worth of electricity per year based on 8 loads of laundry a
week. On average, we wash 4 loads of
laundry each week. I am not going to
invest alot of time trying to minimize this use of energy.
What I am focusing
on is lowering the amount we use our dryer.
Our dryer, though it is new, is not considered “energy efficient.” There is nothing listed on the machine to
show how much energy it uses each and every time we dry our clothes. That being said, I have been hanging my
clothes to dry on a quilt rack and wood drying racks exclusively in 2013.
My husband washes his own work clothes at least once a week. I have attempted to take over this job of
his, and so far, have been pretty successfully. He prefers his clothes to be dried in the
dryer; however, I dry them using the racks and then “fluff” them for 5-10
minutes in the dryer. The “fluff’ mode
does not use heat, so it is a win-win for us.
I would be extremely happy if the dryer gets used only once each week.
Oven
It takes a lot of energy to heat up and maintain a constant
temperature in a conventional oven. When
I cook something that requires the oven, I am going to attempt to make more
than one meal at a time in the oven. I
am using the crock pot more this year in place of using the oven as well as
cooking in cast iron skillets on our wood burning stove.
Dishwasher
In the past, we ran the dishwasher 3-4 times a week. No matter what setting I wash our dishes on
(light wash or heavy wash), it takes about 2 hours from start to finish. I have been washing the dishes by hand and
let them dry in the dishwasher overnight.
Previously when we used the dishwasher, I had to pre-rinse anyway, so
this isn’t so bad. I am hoping that by
running the dishwasher no more than once a week, we can see a visible change in
our electric bill.
The electric company offers a “budget” each year where we
have the option to pay one set amount each and every month throughout the year. We do not take advantage of this offer. Instead, we pay our bill based on our usage
each month. I feel this helps to keep us
on track when it comes to lowering our consumption. That being said, the only way to determine if
we are actually lowering our use of electricity is to compare this year’s usage
to our usage in 2012. In
2012, we used 13,297 kilowatt hours of electricity. (WOW!) I would like
to lower our use of electricity by 15% this year, decreasing our use to 11,302
kilowatt hours or less electricity.
Propane
Our home is heated by a propane furnace. Currently, we keep the thermostat very low
(55 degrees) and heat only the rooms we are using. If we are going to bed, we start up the
potbellied wood-burning stove. If we are
in the family room, we use the propane logs in the fireplace to warm up the
room.
I am proud to say that we are still using the same propane
that we purchased back in the spring of 2012 to heat our home! We will need to have the tank filled any week
now, but until then, we are definitely saving on our use of propane so far this
winter. On average, we have our tank
filled 3 times a year. My goal is to
lower that to just twice this year.
What other ways could we save on the use of our utilities?
I would love to hear your suggestions.
I always set my washer on 10 minutes without thinking about it. But my clothes don't get that dirty maybe they would be just as. Lean on 8 minutes. I do 2loads a week which saves 4 minutes of electricity a week which is 208 minutes of electric per year. I rarely use the dryer so I flipped the circuit breaker. That must save something in phantom electric. I put safety plugs in my outlets. It keeps the wind from blowing in. You can spritz your windows and put bubble wrap on them for added insulation. That's all I can think of for now. Good luck!
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