Electric bill

[hippiemum21580]

Okay, I need osme creative ways to cut down on our electric bill. I know m,y two big issues here are laundry and dishes. I do on average two to three loads of laundry a day. Keep in mind with this that I have two in cloth dipes, one of which is potty training when we are at home during the day and two that tend to wet the bed at night. Plus my kids dirty clothes like crazy and my 4 year old changes clothes on a whim throughout the day. I do run it on cold cycle except for when washing diapers. As for dishes, is it better to use the dishwasher or wash by hand? I HATE washing dishes and really hope the answer is dishwasher...haha. Right now we try to be mindful about using lights during the day and unplugging appliances, etc... that can be unplugged when not in use. Any other suggestions?

[cristeen]

the by hand/dishwasher subject is hotly debated. It really depends on your method of handwashing and the age of your dishwasher. If you're only concerned about your electric bill, then probably handwashing is cheaper... but then you're probably paying more for water doing them by hand.

First of all, I'll point out we don't live in snow country. We don't even generally get below 40F.

To drop our electric bill, I only turn on the heat when I have to, and only heat the room I'm in (the office), I set the thermostat to 66 and wear layers... some days that means my bathrobe over sweats. The main thermostat (living room/dining room) is set at 60, and the couch is covered in blankets. We only turn up the heat if we're expecting guests. Our bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen are all unheated.

We replaced most of the lightbulbs we could with CFLs, and I'm very conscious about turning off the lights. We also open the blinds so we only have to turn on the lights near sunset.

I also started washing clothes on cold, with an extra spin cycle, which cuts down on the time in the dryer. Since our house isn't heated, line drying doesn't work for us, but it might be something to think about. Even one less load in the dryer a day saves money over time.

Getting up and going to bed with the sun can also help, but depending on your latitude, may not be practical at this time of year.

I also made a heavy curtain (2 layers of cotton batting between 2 layers of muslin) for the back of the house, to block the breeze that comes in from the cat door from reaching the rest of the house. We also have an insulating "door" between the foyer and the living room to block the draft from the front door.

HTH

[Glover_Girls]

It is a debate but I believe that the dishwasher is best to conserve water. Even over older models that used more water. Of course the older models also use up more electricity than newer ones. But runnning it fully loaded is best regardless of how old your model is. Washing by hand does use a lot of water and electricity for the hot water we tend to keep running when we rinse. I would try to just use the dishwasher once a day if you can and only wash by hand if you have to (like for pots & pans). I reuse glasses and cups if they only had water in them or will rinse out cups to reuse before I consider loading them. I don't have a ton of cups for my dd anyway. I run my dishwasher 1-2 times a week (but it is only the two of us).

I'm a HUGE CFL fan and have them in every socket - even low use areas like closets which doesn't make a huge difference since they are only on once in a while, but I'm committed to not using incandescents (which will be phased out eventually anyway). CFLs do cost more but they are worth the investment. You can start out with just replacing the bulbs in your high use areas like the lr, kitchen, dr, etc. Check with your local electric utility to see if they offer rebates on CFLs. Many states do through energy efficiency programs sponsored by electric utilities.

I also use insulated curtains and since I have electric heat, only heat the rooms we are occupying. I keep it very low during the day when we're not home.

There are lots of good ideas on how to conserve energy on www.energystar.gov.

[reducereuserecycle]

try washing the diapers in COLD water. It has been debated over if it is sanitary, but the overal concensus is that the hot waster isn't actually hot enough to disinfect anyhow.

[lightheart]

changing the wet bed at night... are you totally doing all the sheets and blankets? look at what you could maybe get away with not doing, is the conforter wet or slightly damp, can you hang it and let it go another day and just do the sheets? what about a piddle pad, are you using something underneath that catches most if not all so that you don't have to wash the sheets, the ones like they use in hospitals and nursing homes are the 'THING' maybe look into buying a couple or making something.

clothes changing on a whim, hide their clothes, say this is what you will wear today and that's it, I know that sounds mean so maybe let them pick their one outfit for the day. also beware that if the kids know they get dirty they can change into something clean, they will get dirty just because they want the other color pants.

here it's mud season right now so play outside clothes get really dirty but I try and have them wear play clothes more than once, they are play clothes, I have given up on trying to keep them sparkly clean so having dirt sit in the knees or rear for a couple days will just add to the already stained areas.

I wash dishes by hand and never have had a dishwasher, for us I'm sure it's cheaper since I heat most of my dish water on the woodstove.

turn your hot waterheater down

[laoxinat]

Some utility companies have programs that pro-rate your monthly bill. We did that and it's now only 125.00 a month, summer and winter. We live in S. AZ tho, so our bills are pretty low anyway. HTH!

[MPsSweetie]

I don't do cloth, but we still only wash about 2 loads a week. Sometimes 3, but rarely. And we are very clean people! Of course we don't have anyone that regularly pees the bed either. I wear jeans for 4-5 days between washing, and again we are clean so they don't stink or anything. One shirt a day per person. Amethyst knows she can't change her clothes, but she can play with her dressup stuff. I wash all cold.
And we don't have a dishwasher at all. All by hand here.

Our bill is regularly around $100, summer and winter.

Oh, and weird thing, we changed to all cfl, and told our electric co and they said it wouldn't change our bill a bit! What a waste! And we go through them FAST too! They break easily, burn out constantly. I am NOT impressed.

[Purple*Lotus]

My DH and I just got a dishwasher a month ago. We are anxiously awaiting our water bill and electric bill just to see how much of a change there was. I only run the dishwasher when full, and I try to use up as much space in there as possible. Like, DH likes to leave a lot of space between dishes, but not me, I load the in there like they are supposed to be loaded and they always come out clean.

I wash all cold water except for family cloth. I also try the extra spin on certain loads like towels that tend to hold in water, to lesson drying time. I do not line dry because of allergies, so I am stuck on the dryer.

Depending on whether you have electric heat or not- I have gas heat, but I keep it as low as I can and we wear layers. It rarely goes above 55 in our house, unless MIL comes over, and that is rare because she is allergic to our cats.

I am also big on turning out the lights when I am not in a room.

[KnockedUpButtercup]

Hmmmm...you've gotten some good advice. I've had good luck with CFL's, and one of the major benefits for me is that they don't give off so much heat. Here in the land of eternal humidity (Houston), anything that can cut my AC bill is a help.

I drip dry anything that can go on a hanger...shirts, pants, etc., but use the dryer for sheets, towels, socks, underwear, and old t-shirts. I hang them in doorways, on the shower curtain rod, etc.

There are four of us, so we have a "four light rule..." no more than four lights at a time can be on, and you MUST turn off the lights when you leave a room.

I put some of my "passive draw" items on surge protectors...things like the microwave/coffee pot, that have clocks.

Holly

[kaia8]

Originally Posted by hippiemum21580

Okay, I need osme creative ways to cut down on our electric bill. I know m,y two big issues here are laundry and dishes. I do on average two to three loads of laundry a day. Keep in mind with this that I have two in cloth dipes, one of which is potty training when we are at home during the day and two that tend to wet the bed at night. Plus my kids dirty clothes like crazy and my 4 year old changes clothes on a whim throughout the day. I do run it on cold cycle except for when washing diapers. As for dishes, is it better to use the dishwasher or wash by hand? I HATE washing dishes and really hope the answer is dishwasher...haha. Right now we try to be mindful about using lights during the day and unplugging appliances, etc... that can be unplugged when not in use. Any other suggestions?

I found this on Green Guide:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/119/calculator

The power strips in particular should help, and depending on whether you have gas heating or not, the dishwasher will probably raise the electricity bill a tiny bit. But hey it saves energy in the end, so why not??

Also have you tried letting the kids just be dirty for a day or two? My 3 year old is always a mess, but I've found that if he has to ACTUALLY deal with it all day, he pays a lot more attention to keeping clean. Or if they're older, fill up a tub and ask them to wash the clothes with you! Line drying should totally help too. And for the 4 year old, can you get her to wear the same "dirty" clothes for a few days? I do that myself with jeans and sweaters amd such, and we only do laundry once every two weeks now!