Tiny lights and clocks on appliances
After my lighting audit, I toured the house for an appliance audit. I began with small appliances. I noted all appliances that had a light or clock operating, even while the appliance wasn't performing its intended function. Those tiny lights and clocks use electricity. In the kitchen, I found a radio and coffee maker, both with clocks. We already have 3 other clocks in the kitchen. The radio and coffee maker really didn't NEED to be on, all the time. So, I unplugged, but left them sitting on the counter. For use, it's simple to plug them back in.
Making enough coffee for two days at a time
We have a new procedure for making coffee. I plug the maker in, make an extra large pot of coffee, pouring additional water through the grounds at the end. When it's done brewing, I turn off the maker, and unplug. I make enough coffee for two days this way. On day two, we reheat our coffee in the microwave. While day 2's coffee is not a fresh cup, we do appreciate how much quicker it is to microwave a cup, rather than wait for the machine to brew a pot. For the coffee maker, it is plugged in for about 15 minutes, every other day, instead of 24/7.
TVs, DVD players and amplified antennas
In the bedroom -- we have a second TV, VCR and amplified antenna. I keep all 3 unplugged, unless they're in use. They all have lights on them, which disturb my sleep, and are only occasionally turned on.
Chargers with nothing being charged
Chargers for small devices (ipads, phones, laptops, rechargeable razors), left plugged in, also use electricity, even when not charging anything. I now make the rounds of the house, unplugging all chargers during the day, and am encouraging my family members to remember to unplug after charging. The general rule of thumb I am using is, if it has a boxy thing at the plug end, it has to be unplugged between uses. I felt the box on one of the chargers, one day, while nothing was being charged. It was warm to the touch.
Electric garage door opener -- do I need to use it every single time I come and go?
In the garage -- we have an electric garage door opener. When I am out and about a lot during the day, and I return home knowing that I will have to go out again later that same day, I leave the car parked in the driveway, and let myself in with a key, through the kitchen door. This saves operating the electric door opener a couple of extra times during the day. I began doing this on dance days, several months ago, so that my one daughter could practice tap in an empty garage, during the hours that I was coming and going taking my other daughter to/from ballet. After dropping the ballet dancer off at class, I'd come home and park in the driveway between the drop-off and pick-up times. When we had to cut way back on all our bills, I realized that this was saving the use of electricity for the door opener a couple of times per day.
We also have developed the habit of unplugging small appliances, that don't have lights or displays, such as the toaster and mixer, when not in use. Some people say they drain tiny amounts of electricity if left plugged in. I'm not sure about this, but we just unplug them anyway.
While taking care of these small devices helps (every bit counts), it's the large appliances that drain electricity.
Washers and dryers
In the laundry room -- it goes without saying, run the washer when full. Even if you have a water conservation feature for partial loads, the washer uses the same amount of electricity to run a full load as a partial load. And if the laundry is not terribly dirty, consider a shorter wash cycle. An electric dryer accounts for 5 to 10% of most US household electricity use. The estimates for using an electric dryer are about 30 to 40 cents a load. We wash about 8 loads per week. By hanging all of our wash to dry, I hope to shave $8 to $9 from our monthly electric bill. For the summer, we're using racks on the deck (where it's the hottest and even towels dry in one day). For winter, we'll move the racks inside, but also, we're thinking of adding a clothesline inside the garage. Clotheslines are fairly cheap. I was pricing the mechanical parts at Wal-Mart, and for the line and pulley, we should be able to set up an indoor line for under $10.
With regards to laundry, moisture tends to be a problem in laundry areas. We don't use electric dehumidifiers, but instead use Damp-Rid type products. Dollar Tree carries them from time to time. When I see them, I buy a few. Each canister lasts about 45 days for me. I use them in the laundry room, bathrooms and one of the bedrooms (where dust mites are a problem for one of us, and dust mites need humidity to thrive). They don't replace exhaust fans in bathrooms, for showering, but they help control the mold, which is a constant problem in well-used bathrooms. And they do eliminate the need for any electric dehumidifiers in our laundry area.
Old fridges
In the garage -- we have a garage fridge. It's the old fridge from the kitchen, and I use it for stockpiling good deals, and overflow cold storage. It really does save us money on our grocery bill. But it is pre-1990. All the information I've read says that pre-1990 fridges are electricity hogs. They can use well over of $100 *extra* in electricity, per year.
Ours is a 1977 model, original to the house. I checked the electric meter while it was running one day, and everything else was off and the meter's dial was spinning at a fair pace.
My plan is to get the garage fridge emptied by the end of this month, and unplug it. We'd like to replace it with a newer model, as I do find the extra storage space to be enormously helpful in keeping our grocery bill so low. But I have until late October to shop around, as that's when I typically begin a large stock-up. By having it unplugged just for those 3 months, I figure I can save about $60 total, for just those months. If we get rid of it altogether, we'll save about $280/year!!!! -- according to this refrigerator calculator. By the way, if I replace our old fridge with a 2002-2008 top freezer, bottom fridge model, It will only cost $53/yr to operate, still a savings over $200 a year. (Update: I got it emptied and unplugged. I can't wait to see how this impacts our electric bill! My happy moment of the day -- I went out to the electric meter and it was stopped, actually stopped. Not a thing was using electricity in that moment.)
From their calculator, it appears that a top freezer/bottom fridge is most efficient, followed by bottom freezer/top fridge, and last side by side. There wasn't info at that site on the popular French door fridges. Can you guess which type I'll be replacing our old fridge with?
A word for those using a garage fridge as a beverage fridge: If your garage fridge is pre-1990s, consider transferring your beverages to the kitchen pantry, and load into the fridge on an as needed basis. The money that you think you're saving by stocking up on beverages at Costco is being sucked away by your energy-hog old fridge. You can always plug it back in if you have a large gathering of friends and family.
Getting efficient with my electric ovens
In the kitchen -- our cooktop is gas, but our ovens are electric. I have a very large oven, as part of a large stove, and a smaller wall oven. The smaller oven preheats in less time than the larger one, so I tend to use it when just baking a couple of small items.
I have found a way to use my ovens more efficiently. Again, this isn't a new idea, you'll find it in just about every homemaker's cookbook, vintage 1950s - 1960s. I bake as much as I can think of at one time, and will still fit in the oven. For example, last week, I baked 3 small loaves of French bread, a covered casserole of rhubarb sauce, a casserole of homemade refried beans, a pan of corn bread and some whole potatoes, all at the same time in one oven. These foods weren't for the same meal, or even the same day. I planned ahead to fit as many things as possible into that oven, all at once. The baked potatoes required more bake time than any other item, so I simply shut off the oven when everything else was done, and left them in while the oven was cooling (about another 40 minutes). The foods that were not for that night's meal were reheated in the microwave, the next day, as needed.
Another day last week, I did all the week's baking. I baked a batch of peanut butter cookies, a loaf of French bread, a batch of hot dog buns, a batch of granola and a large batch of blueberry muffins. I used the smaller oven for this baking, doubling up using both racks, and baking in sequence. Although I couldn't bake it all at one time, I was able to save on the preheating of the oven for several bakings, instead of baking each food on different days. For the remainder of the week, we have not turned the ovens on at all.
Opening the kitchen fridge less during the day
I've also found a few small ways to use less electricity with the kitchen fridge. I plan ahead and thaw frozen foods in the fridge. I take all I need out of the fridge for one cooking session, all at once, and do the same when I return items.
Our filtered water dispenser is inside the fridge (not on the door, as many fridges have). I fill a large pitcher with water and ice in the morning, and leave it on the counter for the day, instead of all of us opening the door over and over to get one glass of water at a time. At the end of the day, leftover water goes into the coffee maker or onto house plants.
Asking myself, "can I cook this in the microwave?"
I am using my microwave to do more of the cooking work than previously. I was air-drying some herbs last week, and they just were not drying out quickly enough. I was going to pop them into the food dehydrator, then remembered my sister in law using her microwave to dry herbs. You lay them on a tea towel or paper towel and zap a bunch in 8 second intervals, until just about dry (not bone dry, or they'll taste scorched). Then transfer to a large plate and allow to air dry for a few hours.
I also made a tasty zucchini Parmesan casserole in the microwave the other night. It was slightly more watery than if oven baked, but the excess veggie juice I poured into a pot of soup that was also being served.
So many foods do well in the microwave. It's especially useful for single servings, like scrambled eggs, a single baked potato, a couple of strips of bacon, or one or two hot dogs. No need to heat an entire skillet, or the oven for just one or two people.
I have a favorite snack in fall, that I do in the microwave. I chop an apple and put in a mug, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and microwave for 1 minute, until the apple is soft. I then crumble 1 graham cracker on top, and it;'s my own apple pie.
While I don't care for most meats cooked in the microwave, I do think ground meat comes out especially well. Microwave meatballs or patties of ground meat to be covered in sauce turn out great. And you've probably already heard that it uses less electricity to microwave a single mug of water for tea or oatmeal than to heat the same amount of water on the stove.
A few microwave recipes: cornbread, brownies, scrambled eggs
Using a toaster oven for small baking needs, instead of the larger wall oven
(see this post) My toaster oven uses a fraction of the electricity of my wall oven. I estimate that I will save between $1 and $2 per month, by this little change. Read the linked post to see the difference in electricity use between toaster ovens and standard wall/range ovens.
Dishwasher efficiency
The dishwasher is another appliance that uses roughly the same amount of electricity to do a full load as a partial load. I say "roughly", as dishwashers with soil sensors may run longer for loads with more food debris in the water. But for the most part, it's more efficient to run a very full load than an almost full load.
Most of us will run out of plates before the dishwasher is completely filled. As I'm thinking what to serve for the upcoming meals, I start to consider which dishes are left. So while breakfast might have been planned for toast, if all the plates are gone, then we'll switch to granola or oatmeal instead. Or if lunch had been planned to have soup, but all the bowls are almost gone, we'll use mugs instead.
And just a note about glassware, you can fit more tall skinny glasses into the racks than you can short fat ones. If I have a choice, I use the tall, skinny glasses.
And finally, I am very creative in how I pack in the dishes. On the bottom rack, there is just enough room, between the 2 main plate strips, for several small bread and butter plates to fit diagonally. And I think everyone already knows this, but using the air dry feature saves electricity, too.
I try to make sure that I'm the one who actually starts the dishwasher, as I tend to get more in than anyone else in the family. About midday, I'll usually do a quick re-stack of the dishwasher, and really fit things in tightly, just so the rest of the family can see for themselves that there is indeed lots more room, and no need to start it up prematurely. (I hang my head in shame -- we used to make fun of my dad for re-stacking the dishwasher after we put our dishes in. He was just being careful with how often it was run. Now I get it, Dad!)
I am hoping that with all these changes concerning how we use our appliances, that we shave at least $20 a month from our regular bill. More would be great. There was a time, when we first moved into this house, that our electric bill was about $25/month. I know that those days are long gone, but maybe I can get our bill to about $50/month, which would beat my target goal of a 20% savings.
I'm glad to move on from electricity. I feel like I've read so many articles on how to save in this area. I'm needing a change. (And I think my family probably is, too. Imagine if every conversation with me began with, "guess how much it costs to run the XYZ appliance?" Really, I've read up on just about every electrical thing in our house. Everything, really. If I did the math right, it costs 3/4 of a cent to toast a slice of bread in our toaster.) Stay tuned for more on how I am slashing our budget to the bone.
