Ideas to save on energy bill

Thanks for all the great tips! I grew up without air conditioning, so it shouldn't be hard for me. We do have two ceiling fans where we live, and I hope our new apt will have them too (we're moving July 1). I never thought about unplugging the TV, VCR, etc, when we are not using them.

Oh, and when the baby is born I may not have time to shower every day, that saves some energy .

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We try not to have too many things "on" at the same time. We used to have the TV, computer, lights, fan all on at the same time but not anymore.

We've also cut back on the number of lights we keep on. We don't live in the dark but we dim the lights to a lower level. We can still do what we need to do without the rooms being very bright. If no one is in a room we don't leave a light on. We use energy saving bulbs too.

Don't use the bathroom exhaust fan if you don't want to lose your heat or air conditioning. Leave the door open a crack if you don't want to steam up too much.

In the summer put up some gauzy white curtains (you don't even have to hem them), spray water on them to dampen or soak and let the breezes blow through.

As mentioned, turn off power drawing deices. Our computer and equipment are on one surge suppressor and our TV, DVD player, etc are on another. We just turn all those things off unless we're going to use them.

Lower your hot water heater to 110. We always have plenty of hot water and ours is never above that temperature.

If you live in a part of the country where you can use a swamp cooler instead of AC, do it. It lowers our electric bill by $75 a month in the summer.

Don't use overhead lighting. In the living room, sit in chairs or sofas next to spot lighting or table lamps for reading etc. Put a lamp with a 40 watt bulb on the dining room or kitchen table to eat rather than light the whole room with a 75 watt or higher bulb.

Shade very sunny summer windows so you get less heat in the house in the first place. JCPenneys has insulating liners in white for very little money. We bought some for our sliding glass door "wall" in our apartment and we stay much cooler by leeping the heat from the windo from radiating into the house. We just use the liners and no drapes.

Weatherstrip windows and doors. Cover vents with something if you aren't using them so you are not heating and cooling unused space. Same for closets: close them.

Try to vent air out the ceiling or attic if you can.

Drink lots of cold water. Refrigerate water overnight, add ice in the morning and leave it in a crock on the counter during the day so everyone stays hydrated and cool and feels less hot and tired.

Plan after nap trips to the library or grocery store errand in the hot part of the day. Use their AC, not yours!

Install awnings over windows outside to shade them from summer sun.

Get up early in the morning, siesta nap between 2-4, eat dinner later.

Cook with a solar oven or eat fresh raw foods so you cook less. If you cook something like a lasagna, make two so you only run the oven once for both meals. Use the oven major only once a week - cooking casseroles and baking all on one day.

Line dry all your clothes. Before they get too hard and crackly, soften them in the dryer for less than 10 minutes.

Buy a thermometer and make sure your fridge doesn't keep colder than 40 degrees and the freezer no colder than 0. I can't even get my freezer colder than 10 degrees and eerything in it is fine.

mysterygrl - good reminder about using the breakers for power shut-off. I once kept hearing this wiring "whine" and couldn't figure out just what was causing it so I turned off one breaker at a time to see exactly which rooms, outlets, etc. they ran. The last "whine" was the furnace motor which was in the kitchen (manufactured home) and was used for both AC and heat. I finally turned the breaker off to it in between seasons to reduce the mental noise. But the breaker system is a great way to audit your home and see just what uses electricity at what rate. Like leave on only your entertainment system (turn it off but leave plugged in), for example, and check your meter box and watch how fast it spins. This is how we found out the AC and heat systems in our apartment use MORE electricity in a smaller space than did our central AC and heat in a house almost twice as big. Cheaply made and inefficient so we're very careful about use. And we still use only the fridge, hot water heater , and a radio clock with intermittent use of TV, computers, etc, and the bills are still $50 for that. I think it's time to turn off this furnace in the apartment and I'll bet my bill goes down $20 more. Those things draw even when they are not "on".