Quest for Enlightenment
There was a survey on our electric company's website, it rated PowerSmart savvy. So after taking the quiz, not liking the score and being slightly competitive, I read up on energy saving tips so I could redo the quiz. Okay, not only read about tips, but implement a few and possibly save some money.
We were amazed when our electric bill arrived, more on that later.
Most of the incandescent bulbs we had were replaced with CFL (not the Canadian Football League), Compact Floursent Lights. We started with a couple, then added a few more, until most of the main floor has CFL. It takes a few minutes for them to reach full brightness, but when they do they are bright! For a cozier atmosphere we used lower watts bulbs in some rooms.
Next was something that we hadn't heard about before, standby energy. Did you know that cell phone chargers left plugged in use energy, even if the cell phone isn't attached. Or that TV's, stereos, DVD players, any electronic equipment that has a clock feature is using electricty even when its turned off. And that computers left on 24/7 add about $45 to your engery bill jper month. I didn't! So we unplugged all the electronic equipment and connected them to powers bars. It took a bit of fiddling to get the different components in a workable configuration, but now it's a simple flip of the switch. Any electrical item that is not being used is unplugged.
Then there are the basics: turn the lights off when you leave a room, do only full loads of laundry, air dry laundry if possible, do full loads in the dishwasher, etc.
Now for the electric bill. Our electric company lists the average kWh used for both the current month (ie November) and for the same month the previous year. There wasn't any difference in the amount - to make budgetting easier we use the equalization plan, our yearly usage is divided by 12, so we pay the same amount every month.
November 2006 we used on average 27 kWh
November 2007 we used 3 kWh, yup a reduction of 24 kWh!
Pretty impressive, huh. The real test though is going to be the next couple of bills. December 2007 only had a reduction of 1 kWh (not so impressive), but then again we did have twice the amount of Christmas lights as the year before. We're waiting for the January 2008 bill to see of the November bill was just a fluke.
Imagine that, we are actually looking forward to receiving a bill!
Haven't taken that quiz again, my competitive nature has been quelled for the moment, at least until the next bill arrives.
Saxie Mom
We were amazed when our electric bill arrived, more on that later.
Most of the incandescent bulbs we had were replaced with CFL (not the Canadian Football League), Compact Floursent Lights. We started with a couple, then added a few more, until most of the main floor has CFL. It takes a few minutes for them to reach full brightness, but when they do they are bright! For a cozier atmosphere we used lower watts bulbs in some rooms.
Next was something that we hadn't heard about before, standby energy. Did you know that cell phone chargers left plugged in use energy, even if the cell phone isn't attached. Or that TV's, stereos, DVD players, any electronic equipment that has a clock feature is using electricty even when its turned off. And that computers left on 24/7 add about $45 to your engery bill jper month. I didn't! So we unplugged all the electronic equipment and connected them to powers bars. It took a bit of fiddling to get the different components in a workable configuration, but now it's a simple flip of the switch. Any electrical item that is not being used is unplugged.
Then there are the basics: turn the lights off when you leave a room, do only full loads of laundry, air dry laundry if possible, do full loads in the dishwasher, etc.
Now for the electric bill. Our electric company lists the average kWh used for both the current month (ie November) and for the same month the previous year. There wasn't any difference in the amount - to make budgetting easier we use the equalization plan, our yearly usage is divided by 12, so we pay the same amount every month.
November 2006 we used on average 27 kWh
November 2007 we used 3 kWh, yup a reduction of 24 kWh!
Pretty impressive, huh. The real test though is going to be the next couple of bills. December 2007 only had a reduction of 1 kWh (not so impressive), but then again we did have twice the amount of Christmas lights as the year before. We're waiting for the January 2008 bill to see of the November bill was just a fluke.
Imagine that, we are actually looking forward to receiving a bill!
Haven't taken that quiz again, my competitive nature has been quelled for the moment, at least until the next bill arrives.
Saxie Mom
posted by GoalieMom | 12:32 PM
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