Things to purchase for energy savings

[GlockSpock]

I have a $100 gift card to Walmart. Instead of blowing it on something I probably don't really need, and I don't want to stand in line for .22lr ammo, I am thinking of purchasing something for energy savings. I just don't know what! I am attempting to cut my electric bill a noticeable amount. I've already setup the Nest thermostat and awaiting my first reports in relation to savings.

 

Things I am considering.

 

Fancy light bulbs

Timers

Dehumidifier (possibly)

 

I don't really know, but I am sure you do! Do you have a way I might be able to spend my $100 to help curb my electric cost? I'd be nice if it were to pay for itself (the $100) over the next year. Give me some ideas!

[peejman]

Insulation kit for garage doors or windows. 

 

Weather stripping/seal kit for exterior doors. 

 

Window tinting for any south-west facing windows. 

 

Attic vents. 

 

Thermostatic attic fan. 

 

Water heater insulation blanket. 

 

Hot water pipe insulation. 

 

Vapor barrier for the crawl space. 

 

Ceiling fans.

 

CF or LED bulbs

 

Motion sensors and/or timers and/or photocells on lights

 

... my new HVAC unit is saving me about $40/mo compared to the old one, but the initial cost is slightly higher than $100... ;)

Edited September 5, 2013 by peejman

[LI0NSFAN]

Programmable thermostat, we saw our energy bill drop 30%. We se the house to be at our comfortable temp from 6am-10am and then from 5-10 pm and 4 degrees(up or down based on season) off during the other times. The one we got was $50 so that would leave you enough to get an water saving heads for your sinks, that cut our water usage almost 50%. The best part is that in sinks you don't notice the lower water usage. My wife makes fun of me because of all the stuff I have done to save on the utility bill. When we moved into this house we were paying $200 for power and $90 for water per mo on average. After the thermostat, faucet heads, shower heads, and new light bulbs ( combo LED and CFL) we are down to $120 for power and $35 a mo on average. That comes out to about 1,600 a year. I am getting new windows and insulation put in and because the bill is so low now I will probably not see a great ROI on those. I also look at it as a way to see the bare minimum we need to live comfortably so we can adjust our prepping accordingly. If I can drop the power usage another 20% we can go off grid with solar. When I can move somewhere with well water I will be all set.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

We run a few lights 24/7 for convenience. For instance, it invites an eventual accident to have the back stairs to the basement un-illuminated (our basement has a laundry room, wood shop and basement apartment, so the stairs are used frequently). Two little 2 watt inexpensive LED bulbs illuminate the stairs and basement hall good enough to avoid accidents, and consume a lot less power than the 80 watt tube flourescent ceiling fixtures. The little lights are wired always-on, and if more light is needed the tube flourescents are still there to flip on when needed.

 

LED motion-sensing outside lights on the back basement door, basement apartment entrance door, front porch and outside shop. The LED motion-sensing lights are bright as landing lights, but only run when needed.

 

I set up the porch and outside shop lights with fairly big boxes and multiple lights. Landing light bright LED outside PARs aimed to light up the entire front yard and driveway, on the motion sensing circuits. And also one small 4 watt LED PAR wired always-on constantly illuminating the porch on a dusk-to-dawn circuit, and two small 4 watt LED PARs similarly illuminating the shop and driveway area with dusk-to-dawn circuits. So the small always-on lights provide modest illumination all the time to discourage burglars or whatever, make the house look occupied, with the major lumens just switched on a few minutes at a time when necessary.

 

That is lots less power than the 10 or 15 watt dusk-to-dawn flourescents that previously decorated those four locations.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[GlockSpock]

Insulation kit for garage doors or windows. 

 

Weather stripping/seal kit for exterior doors. 

 

Window tinting for any south-west facing windows. 

 

Water heater insulation blanket. 

 

Hot water pipe insulation. 

 

CF or LED bulbs

 

I was thinking about these, particularly the window tinting and seal/insulation kits for doors and windows. Any information on these?

[GlockSpock]

Programmable thermostat, we saw our energy bill drop 30%. We se the house to be at our comfortable temp from 6am-10am and then from 5-10 pm and 4 degrees(up or down based on season) off during the other times. The one we got was $50 so that would leave you enough to get an water saving heads for your sinks, that cut our water usage almost 50%. The best part is that in sinks you don't notice the lower water usage. My wife makes fun of me because of all the stuff I have done to save on the utility bill. When we moved into this house we were paying $200 for power and $90 for water per mo on average. After the thermostat, faucet heads, shower heads, and new light bulbs ( combo LED and CFL) we are down to $120 for power and $35 a mo on average. That comes out to about 1,600 a year. I am getting new windows and insulation put in and because the bill is so low now I will probably not see a great ROI on those. I also look at it as a way to see the bare minimum we need to live comfortably so we can adjust our prepping accordingly. If I can drop the power usage another 20% we can go off grid with solar. When I can move somewhere with well water I will be all set.

 

Well then I really hope to see my bill drop 30%! I just purchased the Nest thermostat. It costed a bit more than your $50, but it has a pretty screen and iOS comparability (I go for that sort of stuff). Honestly, a more efficient shower head is something I've likely overlooked, as well as stuff for the sink.

 

This could become quite a hobby/addiction (trying to get your water and electric bills as close to $0 as possible)!

[10-Ring]

$100 to play with?  A caulk gun and a bunch of caulk.  Seal up all f your windows good.  That's a project I have to do myself this fall.

[peejman]

I was thinking about these, particularly the window tinting and seal/insulation kits for doors and windows. Any information on these?

 

 

Not really, it's all pretty simple stuff.  Don't know if walmart will have the garage door insulation kits but they should have weather stripping and such.  Easiest way I know of to find air leaks is to light an incense stick and move it around door/window edges while the HVAC system is running.  If there's a leak, the smoke will tell you.  Window tinting requires a lot of patience and a steady hand.  If you've never done it before, it may take a couple tries to make it look good. 

 

 

$100 to play with?  A caulk gun and a bunch of caulk.  Seal up all f your windows good.  That's a project I have to do myself this fall.

 

 

This too.  I have a couple windows in desperate need of re-caulking.  Sadly it's been on my list for a couple years.  I hate caulking.  Actually I hate digging out the old caulk more than I hate applying new caulk.  :yuck:

Edited September 5, 2013 by peejman

[LI0NSFAN]

 

 

 

 

This could become quite a hobby/addiction (trying to get your water and electric bills as close to $0 as possible)!

It is a lot of fun to see if you can beat the previous years usage for the same mo. or seeing if you can get the bill under $100 for both power and water. I have done that 2 times, in the last year. I expect to do it several more times because we just got a newer washer and dryer and have already seen a BIG drop in water usage. It is a fun hobby and so far I have saved more than I have spent.

 

The lowest we have been is 680KWH and 2 CCF, our bill was only $85 that month. but that was before the service increase last winter.

Edited September 6, 2013 by LI0NSFAN

[GlockSpock]

I just ended up purchasing some LED replacements for the main lighting in my house. Home Depot has a packaged deal called "Ecosmart" and has (2) 6w A19 sized bulbs for $15. Assuming that they actually only use 6w and they last anywhere near their 20,000 hour expected life, they will easily pay for themselves. My main concern is that they will either not last even a year or that (due to wiring, dimmers, etc), they will actually draw much more than the 6w they are rated at.

 

Assuming each light only draws 6w, then:

 

I can run all 11 of them for 66w vs running one of the previous lights for 65w!

Here are these (I purchased 12 of them, but only need 11).

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-6-Watt-40W-A19-Soft-White-LED-Light-Bulb-2-Pack-ECS-GP19-W27-40WE-FR-120-DG-2PK/204338794?N=bm79Z25egxh

 

I also purchased 10 (only needed 9) of these smaller bulbs to go in the three light fixtures that take them. Each fixture is centered in the ceiling of three of our rooms. Typically they are a 25w bulb, but these are .6w. However, they are made for "night-lights", and I'm not sure if they put out enough light to even full with. We'll make that decision tonight once it gets dark. The plus side is that I could run all of them (9*.6), and use less energy that one of the 6w LED's listed above.

Here they are.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-0-6-Watt-C7-Nightlight-Replacement-LED-Light-Bulb-2-Pack-421818/203343848

 

Assuming that we use every light replaced in the house for 4 hours a day, it should amount to a savings of $8-$10 a month on the electric bill. Assuming that the LED's last at least 2 years, they'll more than pay for themselves considering the cost of bulb replacement.

 

I'd say if you are willing, at least go purchase one of those $15 packs and see if you liked them. I'll try and update this thread if they give me any trouble.

 

I did the bulbs first because they were a piece of cake to replace and some bulbs needed replacing anyway. I have no experience with sealing doors/windows, but I know that there are several areas that there is a considerable air leak that should be filled. Loving the suggestions. Also considering spending the $10 or so it would take to put an even more 1.25 GPM efficient shower head in and a .5 GPM aerator in the bathroom. If I can bring my water usage down by 1 "unit" (roughly 750 gallons), that'll save me roughly $5 a month (after sewer charges). The thing is, sometimes I might go over that unit by 100 gallons and sometimes it may go over by 700. An aerator might do well in cutting usage by 100 gallons a month but won't come near the 700 gallons. So it may be a hit or a miss, and I guess I'll give it a go just to see how it works.

 

Any more thought?

Edited September 24, 2013 by CZ9MM

[monkeylizard]

I have one of these and it's awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017L9Q9C/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I'll run it around various areas to find hot/cold spots around windows, gaps in insulation in the ceilings/floors, unsealed breaks in the structure (like where a ventilation pipe enters the house). Besides that, it's just kind of a cool toy to play around with. :)

[Guest Lester Weevils]

My old house was pretty tight when we moved in 30 years ago. Strangely, it has always been very inexpensive to heat in the winter, but expensive to cool in the summer. Dunno how that works. You would think that if the house costs a lot to cool, then it would also cost a lot to heat.

 

Have done a lot of stuff to make the dump more energy efficient. The house has lots of winders for its size, had 21 old painted-over big-old-fashioned wood windows upstairs, and 8 smaller "more modern size" windows in the basement and basement apartment. It is surprisingly easy for a thumb-fingered amateur to do a tight replacement install of vinyl windows. Over a couple of years I replaced all 21 of the upstairs windows with low-e double pane vinyl windows, and have replaced 6 of 8 of the downstairs windows. I already have the other two replacements sitting in a corner, and will get around to installing them sometime this fall or winter.

 

Every couple of months I'd order two or three winders from Home Depot and install em on a weekend day. Keep at it long enough and they all got done. Cash out of pocket, no loans or paying a crew to do it all in one swoop.

 

Upstairs the windows costed a little more because they are bigger than modern windows, had to special-order that size, and there is lots of oak trim upstairs and white vinyl wouldn't have looked right, so also had to pay extra to get fake oak colored vinyl. However, all the windows were a standard "1940's era" size. Just that Home Depot didn't stock that size and they had to be ordered.

 

Some of the downstairs windows were also odd-sized. The original owner built the house and three of the basement windows he apparently built himself, a real odd-ball almost square shape. Another couple of the apartment windows the man apparently built himself and they were tiny almost like doll-house windows. But the rest of the downstairs windows were a standard "1950's era size" and Home Depot had that size in stock on the shelf white vinyl about $100 apiece.

 

Installing the new windows "right" with lots of 50 year polyurethane caulk and insulation in the right places, helps a lot. The low-e glass reduces heat radiation in during the summer and heat radiation out during the winter. No storm windows to mess with.

 

A ridge vent on the roof helps with heat buildup in the attic, and consequent heat radiation from attic down into the house. We "crudely finished" the center half of attic for storage space. insulation and plywood flooring over the ceiling joists in that middle half, which reduced heat coming in from the attic. The attic "walls" installed at about a 4 foot height on each side. Sheet rock and insulation on those walls, and plastic foam "vent channels", insulation and sheetrock on the "ceiling" of the finished middle space, which reduces the amount of heat coming into the attic from the roof.

 

Then in the attic crawl space on the "outside" of the "finished attic" walls, crawled around out there and added insulation where useful, then screwed down that aluminized chipboard stuff over the ceiling joists. Which would make an air barrier and also reflect some infrared back up. Then stapled that reflectix bubble wrap stuff under the rafters in that "crawl around" area on each side of the center "finished" section of the attic.

 

Need to get a new roof on the thang, will install as light-colored steel roof as the wife will allow, and ask the installer if it is possible to install sheet foam under the steel roofing. I think a layer of foam under the steel, and a light colored roof, would help a good bit keeping heat out of the attic (and the house).

 

I've had quite a few LED lights in the house for a couple of years. Only one failed so far, and it failed in a couple of weeks, obvious manufacturing defect. I like the brightness and color balance of the LED lights. It is easy to pick the color balance you want, and the indication on the packages, and the lumen estimates on the packages, seem pretty repeatable. At least compared to CFL bulbs. In my experience, the CFL bulbs it is a crap shoot whether the color temp of the light will have any relationship to the marking on the package.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[GlockSpock]

I've had quite a few LED lights in the house for a couple of years. Only one failed so far, and it failed in a couple of weeks, obvious manufacturing defect. I like the brightness and color balance of the LED lights. It is easy to pick the color balance you want, and the indication on the packages, and the lumen estimates on the packages, seem pretty repeatable. At least compared to CFL bulbs. In my experience, the CFL bulbs it is a crap shoot whether the color temp of the light will have any relationship to the marking on the package.

 

 

The bulbs I wanted were 3 times as expensive ($19 instead of $7.50). They are the Cree 9.5w BR30 Soft White LED's. The standard A19 size looks a little off in my canned lighting, but most of the time the bulbs will never even be noticed. I too assumed that if one of these is going to go bad, it will probably do it quite quickly. Also, even though they are rated at 20,000 hours and supposed to go for 15-20 years at average usage, I'll be more than thrilled if they go 5 years average usage. For one thing, I just hate changing lightbulbs.

 

I purchased roughly 4-5 different types of LED's last night and tried them all out. I got the more expensive Cree brand in the 6w, 9.5w, and then the "daylight" variation. I honestly ended up liking the cheapest bulb (listed above) better than any of them, so took them all back and got these today. As long as the "Ecosmart" LED's don't have quality issues longterm compared to the Cree brand, the "Ecosmart" LED's are an excellent deal. The Cree bulbs are marked "Assembled in the USA", which had me at first, but assembled, really? Perhaps I am wrong and would like to be, but Cree probably does the absolute minimum needed to put that sticker on there. Who knows? I don't. The Cree bulbs are really neat though.

 

As to all the window talk, I'd love to update our windows. However, I'm just renting, and I really hope we don't stick around long enough to offset the cost of replacing windows.

 

So far on my list I have potentially:

 

• .25 GPM Faucet Aerator
• 1.25 GPM Showerhead
• Caulking and Sealing
• Possibly Hot Water Heater Insulating Cover
• Possibly Hot Water Heater Timer

[peejman]

I've had quite a few LED lights in the house for a couple of years. Only one failed so far, and it failed in a couple of weeks, obvious manufacturing defect. I like the brightness and color balance of the LED lights. It is easy to pick the color balance you want, and the indication on the packages, and the lumen estimates on the packages, seem pretty repeatable. At least compared to CFL bulbs. In my experience, the CFL bulbs it is a crap shoot whether the color temp of the light will have any relationship to the marking on the package.

 

I guess I need to try the LED bulbs.  I've got several CFL's in the house and I don't really like them.  I'm not sure if it's the color temp or the light output or what, but it sure seems to me that four 60W incandescent bulbs put out way more usable light than four 60W equivalent CFL's.

 

 

 

 

The bulbs I wanted were 3 times as expensive ($19 instead of $7.50). They are the Cree 9.5w BR30 Soft White LED's. The standard A19 size looks a little off in my canned lighting, but most of the time the bulbs will never even be noticed. I too assumed that if one of these is going to go bad, it will probably do it quite quickly. Also, even though they are rated at 20,000 hours and supposed to go for 15-20 years at average usage, I'll be more than thrilled if they go 5 years average usage. For one thing, I just hate changing lightbulbs.

 

I purchased roughly 4-5 different types of LED's last night and tried them all out. I got the more expensive Cree brand in the 6w, 9.5w, and then the "daylight" variation. I honestly ended up liking the cheapest bulb (listed above) better than any of them, so took them all back and got these today. As long as the "Ecosmart" LED's don't have quality issues longterm compared to the Cree brand, the "Ecosmart" LED's are an excellent deal. The Cree bulbs are marked "Assembled in the USA", which had me at first, but assembled, really? Perhaps I am wrong and would like to be, but Cree probably does the absolute minimum needed to put that sticker on there. Who knows? I don't. The Cree bulbs are really neat though.

 

As to all the window talk, I'd love to update our windows. However, I'm just renting, and I really hope we don't stick around long enough to offset the cost of replacing windows.

 

So far on my list I have potentially:

 

• .25 GPM Faucet Aerator
• 1.25 GPM Showerhead
• Caulking and Sealing
• Possibly Hot Water Heater Insulating Cover
• Possibly Hot Water Heater Timer

 

 

 

If you're renting, I wouldn't do anything permanent without talking to the owner first.  The owner might be willing to split costs with you. 

 

 

... and just because I'm that guy... If the water is already hot, why are you heating it?  ;)

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Last time I bought some LEDs a few months ago, the cree brand had just showed up, and at that time they were priced pretty low compared to the sticker shock price a couple of years ago. I've got some of the ecosmart bulbs and none have failed yet. I go shopping for as low price as possible, a "warm" color temp, and about 350 to 400 lumens for as low wattage available. I haven't bought any of the "real expensive" LED lights.

 

I switched early on to CFL lights years ago, and liked CFL lights pretty good but wife didn't care for the color much, and you would buy the exact same kind of CFL "warm" brand a few months apart, and the color wouldn't match at all. But it saved a lot of money and made it easier to cool the house in the summer. Figure, if you have a 5 bulb chandelier in the living room, with 40 watt incandescents, in the dog days of summer not only are you running the air conditioner to fight against the sun, but you are running the air conditioner to fight against a dang 200 watt electric heater hanging off the ceiling, masquerading as a light fixture. :)

 

Another thing that helps cooling in the summer, I work at home programming. When I was running dual 24" old-style flat panel monitors, the dang flat panels were freaking heaters sitting right there on the desk all day. Paying air conditioning bills to offset the dang heaters on the desk. But finally the old monitors died and I replaced em with LED monitors that are brighter than the old monitors, and truthfully, no joke, they don't even get warm to the touch. Not only less power draw, but less air conditioning needed to un-do the on-desk heaters.

 

The thing about either CFL or LED lifetime estimates-- The packages for CFL claim for instance, 5 years, three hours per day. The LED's, approx 20 or 30 years, three hours per day. But that five year bulb is only a 1.66 year bulb if you run it nine hours per day, and that 30 year bulb is only a 10 year bulb if you run it nine hours per day, and only a 5 year bulb if you run it 18 hours a day. But I think the estimates on the CFL's have been basically accurate, because I got about 1.5 to 3 years out of em. So maybe the LED estimates will also be fairly accurate. Once used to replacing bulbs only occasionally, seems like you are replacing incandescents "all the time".

Edited September 24, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[GlockSpock]

I guess I need to try the LED bulbs.  I've got several CFL's in the house and I don't really like them.  I'm not sure if it's the color temp or the light output or what, but it sure seems to me that four 60W incandescent bulbs put out way more usable light than four 60W equivalent CFL's.

 

 

 

 

 

If you're renting, I wouldn't do anything permanent without talking to the owner first.  The owner might be willing to split costs with you. 

 

 

... and just because I'm that guy... If the water is already hot, why are you heating it?  ;)

 

I haven't done anything permanent yet. Lightbulbs and thermostats can be taken with you;) I did however send him an email just now, notifying him of the changes and to see if he wants to offset any of them. I mentioned wanting to weather seal things better, and suggested that perhaps he'd consider that. We'll see.

[GlockSpock]

Last time I bought some LEDs a few months ago, the cree brand had just showed up, and at that time they were priced pretty low compared to the sticker shock price a couple of years ago. I've got some of the ecosmart bulbs and none have failed yet. I go shopping for as low price as possible, a "warm" color temp, and about 350 to 400 lumens for as low wattage available. I haven't bought any of the "real expensive" LED lights.

 

I switched early on to CFL lights years ago, and liked CFL lights pretty good but wife didn't care for the color much, and you would buy the exact same kind of CFL "warm" brand a few months apart, and the color wouldn't match at all. But it saved a lot of money and made it easier to cool the house in the summer. Figure, if you have a 5 bulb chandelier in the living room, with 40 watt incandescents, in the dog days of summer not only are you running the air conditioner to fight against the sun, but you are running the air conditioner to fight against a dang 200 watt electric heater hanging off the ceiling, masquerading as a light fixture. :)

 

Another thing that helps cooling in the summer, I work at home programming. When I was running dual 24" old-style flat panel monitors, the dang flat panels were freaking heaters sitting right there on the desk all day. Paying air conditioning bills to offset the dang heaters on the desk. But finally the old monitors died and I replaced em with LED monitors that are brighter than the old monitors, and truthfully, no joke, they don't even get warm to the touch. Not only less power draw, but less air conditioning needed to un-do the on-desk heaters.

 

I do like the Cree's, but I will say that the 60w equivalent bulb I tried hummed when not at full power. The interesting thing is that now they are making LED's compatible with (my) standard dimmers. I just hope that doesn't shorten the lifespan. Glad to hear about the Ecosmart brand. If I have any trouble in the next few weeks, I'll give the Creebrand 40w equivalent a try for $2 more per LED.

[mav]

I will be interested to see what my heating bill is this winter.  I have been absolutely stunned at how low my electric bill runs.  The highest my bill has ever been is $119.32, and the lowest was around $82.00.  Not bad for a 3500 square foot house.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I only had one dimmer, and removed it when I switched to CFL's. I pick the lights for desired "un-dimmed" brightness, but my eyes are old and after the cataract operation, the eye focuses best when the iris is "stopped down", ie, under as bright light as possible. So I try to light up work spaces "brighter than the sun" and pay as little possible for the power consumed. Computer monitors cranked to max brightness, etc. Stops down the iris, makes it easier to see a crisp image.

 

Wife doesn't care for that too much, and when she walks into one of my workspaces she makes tasteless jokes about the landing lights. :)

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I will be interested to see what my heating bill is this winter.  I have been absolutely stunned at how low my electric bill runs.  The highest my bill has ever been is $119.32, and the lowest was around $82.00.  Not bad for a 3500 square foot house.

 

That is crazy low. I'm envious. My small old house with all the improvements costs more than that for cooling. Heating OTOH doesn't hardly cost anything. Dunno why.

[GlockSpock]

I think my issue is essentially that the house leaks pretty well in terms of air. In the winter, I feel like a lot of warm air escapes outide. However, in the summer, it is in a pretty good amount of shade comparatively due to a large overshadowing tree.

 

Electric bill is generally $100 to $120 during the warmer months, but very close to $200 in the winter months. Hopefully we can shave that down:)

[peejman]

I will be interested to see what my heating bill is this winter.  I have been absolutely stunned at how low my electric bill runs.  The highest my bill has ever been is $119.32, and the lowest was around $82.00.  Not bad for a 3500 square foot house.

 

Find a nice girl who likes to bake so the oven stays at 400 deg for hours a couple days/week during the summer.  Leave the computer on for days at a time.  Leave all the wall warts plugged in all the time.  Then a few years later you'll have a couple rug rats to run around the house and turn all the lights on.  That'll fix it.  :)

[Jonnin]

100 bucks to make a dent in your electric bill eh?

 

1) buy and use a clothsline.  Your dryer is probably using a lot of energy AND it wages war with your AC in the summertime.  

 

2) Turn of the AC at night (in all but the most brutally hot days), and blow a fan in your bedroom at night.

 

3) Turn of the TV, vcr, xbox, .......   all that crap.  As in, really turn it off, via a power strip.  MOST modern gadgets burn a ton of energy even when supposedly off:  It ate my links. 

 

 

maybe that will work.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/09/03/top-26-home-energy-hogs-turned-off/

 

4) Forget the microwave.  Use the oven.  Microwaves use a LOT of power in a short amount of time.

 

Most everything else I can think of that has not been mentioned is gonna cost a lot initially but over time will of course save money... things like triple pane windows or modern appliances. 

Edited September 25, 2013 by Jonnin

[GlockSpock]

100 bucks to make a dent in your electric bill eh?

 

1) buy and use a clothsline.  Your dryer is probably using a lot of energy AND it wages war with your AC in the summertime.  

 

2) Turn of the AC at night (in all but the most brutally hot days), and blow a fan in your bedroom at night.

 

3) Turn of the TV, vcr, xbox, .......   all that crap.  As in, really turn it off, via a power strip.  MOST modern gadgets burn a ton of energy even when supposedly off:  It ate my links. 

 

 

maybe that will work.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/09/03/top-26-home-energy-hogs-turned-off/

 

4) Forget the microwave.  Use the oven.  Microwaves use a LOT of power in a short amount of time.

 

Most everything else I can think of that has not been mentioned is gonna cost a lot initially but over time will of course save money... things like triple pane windows or modern appliances. 

 

$100 for lightbulbs, but if calculated correctly should save $10 a month on the electric bill and also the cost of replacement bulbs. I hate changing lightbulbs. We don't use microwaves, but the wife does love to bake. Familiar with electric vampires, that is something I just haven't yet taken the initiative to full with.

 

I did take a look at the water heater setting and realized the water was set to 140°F. I changed it to just under 120°F. That should amount to quite a bit. I also calculated that if my wife and I take a 15 minute shower daily, I can save >750 gallons a month by installing this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UQ17O4/ref=ox_ya_os_product

 

Since it's just a few bucks I am going to give it a try. If we like it and are able to shave >750 gallons, that will shave 1-2 units of water off my water bill. One unit of water is right at 750 gallons. After water and sewer charge, a unit is roughly $5-$7 per unit. Dependent upon how much we use the shower and what my usage is for the month, it could pay for itself the first month. Our current showerhead is 2.5GPM, so that is cutting usage in half for the showerhead. Not to mention the cost savings for the electricity that would be used to heat the additional water being used.

[Jonnin]

The compact flourscent lightbulbs burn out significantly faster than advertised.  They are also highly toxic and difficult to dispose of properly.  I think we will regret having these things in our landfills one day, which is where I suspect the majority of them wind up after burnout.   I think LED cluster lights will be the true way of the future. 

 

I am not saying to not use the things, I am just saying that one day we will regret having a few billion of them busted in our landfills.