What changes did you make to use less electric?

[farmwife]

My other post I said how electric is going to increase! What do you use now that you did with electric!

Does anyone use candles and oil lamps at night instead of electric lights in the evening? I know if you are off grid you do this, but I mean if you still have electric and relay on it for most of your needs.

I dry all my wash outside and rarely use the dryer anymore!

Do you turn your computer off during the day? Anxious to hear ideas!

[Deb&Al]

hello farmwife,

we live in pa, too and have met-ed. we're on the budget plan and our bills are $110 a month. we keep our bills because there's a graph on the back that shows your usage.

our bill spikes in february and march because we have our brooder going for 4 different batches of peeps.

it will spike again for july and august because i'm canning/dehydrating a lot.

as far as what we have changed....

---we've never had ac. however we use a fan all night in the bedroom window, and i have a fan in the kitchen window, and there's a ceiling fan in the dining room and living room.

--we got rid of our dryer 5 years ago, and now hang everything outside or in the basement in the winter.

--i buy candles real cheap at thrift stores and yard sales and we use them in the winter-time at night occasionally.

--we've always liked a cool house, and last year we got buy on 200 gallons of fuel oil for the whole winter season, so keeping the thermostat low means we're not running the electric as much for running the furnace.

:::::what i would like to change, but don't know really how to accomplish it, is that we have 2 refrigerators and 2 full-size chest freezers.

we need the freezers for our meat supply, which is, yearly: 1/4 beef---1 medium pig----2 lambs---50 meat chickens---6 turkeys---2 geese---2 ducks---about 30 rabbits.

we also need freezer space for tomatoes, because i freeze about 3 bushels of paste tomatoes from our garden each summer, as they ripen i just wash and put in bags and put in freezer. they freeze and the skins split. i take them out a few bags at a time in the winter and make tomato paste, spagetti sauce, chile sauce, etc..

the reason i do this with tomatoes is that, not having ac, the kitchen tends to get in the upper 90s when i'm canning, so i try to limit it to things i have to do, like the green beans, corn. and, sauce can take a couple of days to cook down, and the heat in the wintertime that's generated by the stove is easier to live with than doing it in august.

i just don't know how to change the freezer/refrigerator part. i'm sure that's a big part of our electric bill.

debbie

[mpillow]

We got rid of the #2 fridge and put in the CFL (even in the chix coop)

Other than that we are alot lke Deb&AL w/ freezers, no dryer, no ac but fans and fans push wood heat around in winter.

I do turn the pc off at night but on all day.(myself or kids using sporadically)

I am going to try to use my woodcookstove more this winter as well as the wood heater for stews...

My sunroom is a good fridge in the winter BUT my wodcookstove is out there so I'll lose that benefit if I cook alot using the cookstove...

We do have one solar panel& battery config for power outages mainly.

Short of pulling the BIG plug I'm not sure how to do any more cost cutting on the light bill

[kitaye]

We use the clothes line to dry clothes if it is sunny. We only wash 2-3 loads a week so all on one day is easy. In the winter we have a draying rack for hanging clothes on.

We have 1 light in the room we are occupying and one upstairs. All indoor lights are flourescent bulbs. Our outdoor lighting is either solar or kerosene(sp) lanterns though we do have electric on front and back porch.

We don't turn on the air conditioner until it is 27+ inside the house which usually means 35+ outside. We use fans the rest of the time and only when we are in the room. When we are at work the windows are all shut and curtains are drawn to keep the interior cool.

We've installed gutters that fill up two rain barrels. We use that water for various purposes but mostly for the garden and animal water. This helps conserve water and keeps us from using the water pump for hours at a time.

[Hip_Shot_Hanna]

When we moved in, this house was all electric.

We've had the house retrofitted so that we have a propane cookstove and dryer now.

I hang clothes outside almost always.

I cook some things in our solar oven.

We replaced every light bulb in the house with those compact flourescents.

I bought a very energy efficient manual defrost freezer.

We bought a Staber washing machine which uses very little energy, and of course saves on water as well, so the pump on our well doesn't run to fill it as much.

I dried peaches in the solar oven this year so didn't buy and run a dehydrator.

We DO use air conditioning, but keep the thermostat set at 77 or 78, and run fans to make up the difference. If I'm in a room, the fan is on, if I'm not, it is off. Fans only cool people, not rooms.

I use a bread machine to make bread, which doesn't use as much electricity as the oven.

The only mistake we made in the propane range is that the oven is lit by a huge "glow plug" which uses electricity, up to 400 watts per hour! Grrr!

[Old John]

We replaced about 90% of the Bulbs in our House with compact Florescent
Bulbs. They run on about 25 to 30% of the Power that Incandesent Bulbs take. And, they are a lot cooller in hot weather.
I think an 18 watt Compact Florescent puts out the same Light as a
60 watt incandecent bulb.

Be sure to get the Warm white, or soft white Bulbs.
The light is less harsh.
Every little bit helps

[mary,tx]

We use air conditioning, but keep it at 80 during the day, 85 at night. When it was cooling off more at night, we opened the windows and left the cooler off til midday. But now it's on day and night.

I turned down the thermostat on the hot water heater so that it is not keeping the water so hot all the time. And depending on the weather, I hang out a lot instead of running the dryer.

We've made more of an effort to turn off lights and fans in the rooms we are not occupying, but I, personally, wouldn't think of going to candles. For me, it would be too hard on the eyes, and it would seem oppressive. And, of course, if you are not constantly in the room minding them, they are a fire hazard.

The computer does stay on most of the day, just because with a large family, it seems like it is almost always in use. It is off at night.

mary

[turtlehead]

We use compact fluorescent bulbs in all lamps but two which have a dimmer (can't use CF with a dimmer).

We don't own a dryer so hang clothes to dry (they actually dry faster in the winter).

Computers get turned off at night.

We have one window A/C unit and we turn it on set to 78 when the house warms up in the morning. In the evening all windows get opened and we switch to fans.

Need to fix the toilet, it "runs" constantly and that makes our pump kick in and that is expensive!

To the folks that wanted to reduce their freezer usage - have you considered canning the meat instead of freezing it?

[tiffnzacsmom]

Smaller house, if the kids aren't home or asleep I am fine with just a small lamp on at night when on the computer, also go days without turning on the TV and hang most of the clothes I wash. Also, one less person in the household so no longer have STBX's two computers running all day plus mine and the kids' won't get turned on again till its time to start school.

[turtlehead]

Oh yeah - we're considering getting a second wood stove for heat. We heat with wood and gas now (not electric) but gas is going up, too!

[Jan Doling]

In order to afford our annual trek to Bahia Honda State Park, we sacrifice A/C. Believe me, in Florida, this is a major sacrifice! We use ceiling fans if we are in a room with one, turning it off when we leave the room. We each have a personal fan where we watch TV. This summer, the kids spent lots of time visiting their father and I leave the house at 7 and don't return until 7 or 8 at night. Now they are in school and the bus does not bring them home until after 5:30 p.m. On weekends, we do our chores early and head for a swimmin' hole by noon. We usually take a picnic and don't come home until 8 or 9 at night.

We made an outdoor shower out of PVP pipes with a tarp for a shower curtain and connected the hose to one of those fancy rainfall shower heads which has a dial for mist, too. You'd be surprised how fast kids can shower when there is no hot water! We put a camping chair in there and sometimes throw a beach umbrella over the whole works. When we get too hot, we take turns retreating to the "reverse sauna". We usually only wear swim suits at home in summer anyway.

We hang our clothes on drip-dry hangers to finish drying after 5 to 10 minutes in the dryer to take out the wrinkles and get some use out of the softener sheet. We don't turn on the TV or the computer (no internet at home) on school days. So those only run Fri - Sun nights.

I need to get to the dehydrating and canning mode, but haven't the time or energy yet. I do have a cast iron dutch oven, skillet and tripod to make cooking over the fire pit easier and also have a table-top roaster oven which can be used on the porch as can the crock pot to keep the heat out of the house.

[blufford]

Also has tips on how to slash your electric bill and how to read your electric bill. Thanks Mr. Electricity!!
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/

[vtfarma]

We have a 149 monthly budget plan. We have switched to all fluorescent bulbs in the lights we do use but it is actually pleasant in the evening to just sit in the dark and relax, talk or watch something special on the history or discovery channel. We have 3 large freezers and 2 refrig. The freezers have all been replaced with new energy efficient models. It has saved us 100 per month. We run the second fridge for our eggs that we sell. We vacuum all the coils and vent areas on the units at least monthly, usually 2x per month. It helps to keep it running efficiently. We have a boiler so we do not need to change air filters. We have one that we have for circulation in our ceiling from lr to bdr. We use that mostly in the winter and change it once every 2 weeks. AC bugs us, we use only fans. The stove is gas and I cook usually on the grill anyway. The dryer is gas and is used for urgent wear otherwise clothes are hung up... especially inside in the winter. It adds the humidity to the house. We heat with wood all year. It has a fan on it to circulate to the whole house...2200 sq ft, so everyone is warm. The wash is done on cold unless something is a real mess then a load on warm maybe once every other week. We have a newer boiler that is energy efficient, we use it to heat water and only for backup if something happens that we can't be here for a few days.

It is so hard for us to get the bill any lower than this. We were 165 last year and have conserved more to get to the 149. I would like to be off grid. Can't afford that yet.
Laurie

[Ramblin Wreck]

As bulbs blow/die, they're being replaced with fluorescents. I just bought a new freezer a couple of weeks ago, and I spent a great deal of time trying to find a good cross between energy consumption and price. A 14 cubic foot Maytag model won out for me. It is estimated to use $29 in electricity per year (and was $315 after rebate). The well pump/pressure tank is monitored to make sure it is not water logged and comes on/off at optimal intervals. The washer is an energy star front loading Frigidaire unit that uses little water (again, since I'm pumping water, less water means less electricity). Ceiling fans at the farm help "stretch" the air conditioning.

Things I need to do: Get a clothes line. Put a small solar powered system in a barn/garden center I'm building for lighting and possibly a DC powered freezer. I'm also going to put a wood cook stove in the barn for canning. This will save propane for the stove, but it will save electricity in that I do use air conditioning. Canning/heat creation in the house would make the electric AC work much harder.

My total electric bill (for two homes) has not topped $90 per month so far this year. Using the AC judiciously and mostly at night to assist with sleeping helps a great deal I think. Both homes are very well insulated too.

[Maura]

We have a new house with heavy insulation, so a small window air conditioner is all we need to keep the house cooler (major benefit is actually reducing the moisture in the air). Because the downstairs is really the basement on grade with a concrete floor, the downswtairs stays cool in the summer. We have in floor heating so we save both electricity and propane in the winter. I line dry all of the laundry, I no longer have a clothes dryer.

Once I turn the computer on, I leave it on all day. It doesn't save any electricity to be turning it on and off. We have paper shades/blinds on the windows, which let a nice soft glow in during the day, so I can have free light coming into the house without all the heat. We don't have the tv or radio on if nobody is watching/listening.

We have a front loading washing machine. It uses less water (less water heating if you are using hot water), and less energy to run than a top loader. There is an added savings in energy if you use a dryer, because the clothes are spun out so well that they need less drying time. It's easier for me to hang large towels on the line because they aren't heavy with water.

[Jan Doling]

When I do get around to canning, I spent my lottery proceeds (4numbers = $64)on a propane turkey fryer, so canning can be done outdoors. The fryer is also great for camping as it boils water in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, it gives me an edge on hurricane preparedness.

Only 12 weeks until fall here....sigh.

[katlupe]

I'm off the grid so I won't even begin to tell you all the things I do that would save on power. But I have always used the kerosene lamps and only this year started using 2 electric lamps since it is free power and fuel prices are up. But I will say, our window screens are not the best, so they attract bugs that can squeeze in. The kerosene lamps in all the time we used them (and we used 14 through out our home and it was very well lit), never attracted the bugs.

But what I really wanted to say was that if you want some cheap evening lights, buy some of those solar outside garden lights. Put them in the sun during the day and bring them in at night. We have one for a night light in our bathroom and it works great. You could also get one of those solar lights that are used for outside lights or motion detector light for a barn or a garage. Put the light inside and run the panel outside the window. Free lights!

katlupe

[comfortablynumb]

i turned my hot water heater off.

so far other than flipping it on for an hour to take a quick shower.... i havent noticed a difference in life.

it eats 25 bucks a month.... so it should make a substantial dent in my current 40 buck bills.

[tiffnzacsmom]

I need to find my hot water heater to figure out how to at least lower it, as much as I LOVE hot showers, I like my money too.

[michiganfarmer]

We keep our computer turned off, we now keep our tv's and vcr's turned off. I am going to turn my water heater down as soon as I can remember to do it.We have turned off all of our night lights. I am looking into solar water heat, wind electricity generation, and plumbing my outdoor wood furnace to heat my water in the winter. I ordered one of those meters you plug into individual appliances like zeal did. I have an old freezer Im going to check first.