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Home Tips
How
To Lower Your Electricity Bill
How low can you go?
My wife and I have gone as low as $ 36.25 with our monthly
electricity bill in our four-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot house.
People who live in similar homes tell us they routinely spend
$ 100 to $ 150 a month, and ask us how we do it.
Basically, by saving energy.
For example, we
always buy energy-efficient appliances. We follow our electric company's advice, and
figure out the appliance's "unit
life" cost _ its purchase price plus what it costs to
run. One refrigerator may sell for $ 950 and cost $ 93 a year
to operate. Another may sell for $ 1,050, but cost only $ 73
a year to run. The $ 1,050 refrigerator is a better deal.
Even allowing for the earnings you would lose on the additional
$ 100 upfront cost (let us say, 8 percent a year), it would
take less than seven years to recover the extra cost of the
energy-efficient refrigerator. (Remember, the $ 20 you save
every year on electricity can also make 8 percent interest.)
Over an average 15-year life span, the refrigerator selling
for $ 100 more would be $ 226 cheaper.
You
can calculate the unit-life cost from the yellow and black
EnergyGuide label taped on most appliances. The label, required
by federal law, tells you the appliance's estimated annual
energy cost and helps you compare one model with another.
Costs are derived from average electricity rates, so you need
to call your electric company and find the one for your area.
Our utility, Florida Power and Light (FPL), charges about 8
cents per kilowatt hour, including tax and fuel surcharge.
Your utility can also give you ideas for lowering energy costs.
FPL sent us brochures on lighting our home efficiently, saving
on water heating, avoiding energy loss, ceiling insulation,
window treatments, landscaping and many other topics.
FPL also sent a representative to our home to do a free energy
survey. He checked our insulation, weather stripping, window
tinting and appliances' efficiency, and gave us a passing grade.
Here are some of the tips FPL gave us:
- Read the instruction manual from the manufacturer before you
begin using an appliance, and keep warranty information safe
but accessible. We keep a file on each appliance, including
the manual, warranty card and where to call for service.
- Clean appliances regularly. We do it at least once a month.
- Open the refrigerator door only when necessary, and when you
do, shut it as quickly as possible.
- Turn the oven on just before you use it. Preheating is not
necessary for most foods.
- Do not open the oven door to peek, because you will lose valuable
heat. Check food through the window if your oven has one, as
ours does.
- Use a counter-top, compact microwave oven to reheat leftovers
and for quick meals. Our compact microwave - the only one we
have - does not heat up the kitchen, so it puts no strain on
the air conditioner.
- Use hot water only for heavily soiled clothes or normal loads
in which soil has begun to accumulate. Warm or even cold water
is enough for less soiled loads. Doing three to four full loads
a week in warm water costs $ 4 a month; in cold water, only
$ 1.20. We always use the cold-water setting.
- Try to wash clothes during off-peak hours, such as early morning
or late night. We are early risers, and we do our washes after
breakfast.
In some cases, we go beyond what our utility recommends.
The television set, radio or stereo are never background noise
to us. If we are not watching or listening, we turn them off.
FPL recommends that you set the air-conditioning thermostat
or cooling-control switch to the highest comfortable temperature,
and suggests 78 degrees Fahrenheit. We can go higher. We keep
the temperature at 80 to 82 degrees during the day and 78 at
night.
Our utility says that for every degree we raise it, we save
6 percent to 8 percent on the electricity bill. In the winter,
we save 3 percent to 5 percent for every degree we turn the
thermostat down. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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