Energy Efficiency Results In Almost 50% Reduction In Electricity Bill
by Mercia Tapping, President, GreenandMore.com
I just got last month’s electricity bill and it was almost half what it had been a year ago and a savings of $110 for that month alone! Since the energy savings were so dramatic, I reflected on what I had been doing bit by bit over the last year, to achieve that result. Yes, some of the stuff seems obvious and I am a bit embarrassed that I even had to think of changing our behavior - but here goes.
1. Of course, I have been changing light bulbs to more energy efficient ones, but more importantly, I religiously turn off the lights in a room when I leave if only for 5 minutes, and I certainly do not leave lights
on in the house even in the hallway when I am out. Outdoor path lights blazing for the one unscheduled visitor a year are a thing of the past.
2. I have turned the fan on our furnace from ON to AUTO so the fan is not going all the time and we still get enough air circulating.
3. I do not use the dishwasher until it is a full load, and so we use the dishwasher half the number of times we used to.
4. We spend time in our summer home every weekend, so our primary residence is unused at weekends. I turn the heat way down as I leave and deal with the inconvenience of a chilly house on my return.
5. I told my husband at the end of last year that if I caught him turning on the built in wall space heaters this year when he watched television, or if he threw open the windows in our bedroom to air out the house all day and heat the outside- I would levy a fine of $10 a day. After coughing up fines a couple of times, he no longer opens the windows for a long time in winter and wraps himself up in a throw blanket rather than turn on auxiliary heat.
6. We no longer think it is our god given right to walk around the house in shorts in the dead of winter and dress in layers with silk undershirts to keep toasty. Our thermostat is several degrees lower than last year.
7. We turn the computers off when not in use, and unplug all unused appliances, even the lowly toaster, except the refrigerator, in order not to spend money on ghost energy.
The reality is we have achieved these improvements in our energy efficiency with a minimal effort on our part. Like many Americans, we were thoughtlessly guzzling energy without any thought of impact it might have on the planet. The best part for us personally is seeing that energy bill go down every month and being able to pocket the savings. It has now become a game as to where next we can effect improvements. There is still more we can do, but I feel we are on our way to being far more responsible about our consumption of energy than we have in years.
The Going Green Expo in early February in Boston is now a distant green memory, but was well worth the visit. I tromped around wearing our very own juicebags 
