Heating and Cooling
Hang clothes outside to dry- one statistic I found stated that it costs between 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer, and approximately 15 to 20 cents in a gas dryer.
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| Image by erix! |
Dryers also lose heat that escapes into the household, so in the summer use your dryer only if absolutely necessary and use it at night, when it is generally cooler out.
Bake in the morning or evening during the summer as well.
Open your curtains when it’s sunny out during the winter to help warm the house. Close them on sunny summer days to keep the heat out.
Cook outside during the summer. Many foods you would normally bake in an oven, like macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes and baked beans, can be made on a gas grill. Just get your temperature the same as you would for an oven, put your ingredients in a pan and cover with aluminum foil.
Turn your heat down a degree or two and throw on a sweater
Don’t forget to weather strip windows and doors.
Use plastic on windows.
Heat only the rooms that you use. Close the door to the unheated rooms.
• Save on water
Fix any leaks! A small drip from a worn faucet washer can waste 20 gallons of water per day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds of gallons.
Turn the water off !
Turn it off when brushing your teeth. Just wet your brush and fill a glass for mouth rinsing.
As much as 150 gallons of water can be saved when washing a car by turning the hose off between rinses
A four-minute shower uses approximately 20 to 40 gallons of water. So turn the shower off after soaping up, then turn it back on to rinse off.
Store drinking water in the fridge. It is always available and you don’t have to keep waste tons of water trying to get it “super-cold” from the sink.
Catch the rain- use it to water plants
• Energy Savings
Turn off lights, and TV’s when not in use!
Unplug cell phone and Bluetooth chargers when not in use- they draw a small amount of energy even when your device isn’t charging.
Use clothes and dish washers only when full
According to The U.S. Department of Energy , not only do appliances continue to draw electricity while the products are turned off, but in the average home nearly 75% of all electricity used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off !
• Misc….
Use cloth bags at the grocery store – did you know it takes 20 to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose? And they clog drains and waterways and often become “tree ornaments” (ugly ones at that!) after blowing around for a while!
Challenge yourself to try just a few of these things today, and see how much money you can save while saving your environment!
Author Bio: Carolee Sperry is a busy WAH, Homeschooling, Blog- Crazy Momma! She can be found at: http://workinginjammies.blogspot.com and http://adviceforworkathome.blogspot.com.
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Awesome post! Thank you for sharing this.