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I absolutely love liviing in California. Beautiful weather, mountains, beaches, lakes, theme parks (the happiest place on Earth),plus we’re leading the US in green legislation and smart energy usage.
Even though my husband isn’t always on board with my efforts of going green (family cloth), he’s mostly supportive. He’s a big fan of my efforts to save energy however. Good for the environment and good for our wallets? It’s something he can really get on board with. Win-win!
Unplug Appliances When Not In Use
Did you know that some appliances still use energy even when they’re turned off? PG & E estimates up to 10% of power bills are from these ‘vampire’ appliances. This can add up to hundreds of dollars a year. Some vampires are obvious with their glowings LED lights – think microwaves, WIFI routers, etc. Some aren’t as obvious… cell and laptop chargers, toasters, blenders. To combat this, I unplug things between use (even my essential oil diffusers! 😉 ) Grouping together appliances that are used most often into a power strip makes this task easier – I use this with our TV and cable box and game consoles. I simply flip the power strip and it powers off everything at the same time. Easy!
Lower Thermostat
My husband’s body and mine are opposite… he runs cold and I run hot. Any sign of a slight wind and my husband has a jacket and the heater going. While I would probably never run the heater (not even in the winter) if I didn’t have kids. By simply lowering the thermostat a few degrees, you can reap both energy and money savings. By setting our thermometer to 75 in the summer, and 70 in the winter, we’ve reduced our energy consumption. We also have a smart thermostat so we can set different temperatures when we won’t be home.
Line Dry Clothing
I confess, I bought a retractable clothesline last year sometime during the winter, but failed to put it up until a few weeks ago. Now that it’s up, I wish I had done this much sooner! Clothes come out so soft and smelling so good. Plus, the sun is a natural stain treatment – perfect for all of our cloth diapers! Plus the dryer is an energy hog with estimates that it is up to 6% of energy bills.
Looking for more ideas to save energy (and money)? Visit Energy Upgrade California and do your thing!
What are you doing to save energy? Share your tips below!
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Thank you for sharing this. Though, I don’t live same as you in California but here in my country energy bills are so high. Anyways, now that I live alone. I’m trying to apply this daily on how to save energy more often. Thank you for such an informative article, will surely apply all this easy tips.