Okay, there is one monthly expense that I do everything I can to save money on. It's something that leaves us absolutely nothing to show for the money spent. Whether we use it wisely or extravagantly, it's gone at the end of the month. What am I talking about? UTILITIES! Three years ago we had a series of electric bills that were over 400.00 per month, accompanied by high water bills. Our natural gas bill is always lower during the summer but we're going after that in a big way. Every month we suffered from shock at the mailbox. The fact that blew my mind was that once that energy was used it was gone. That wasted energy didn't add any value to our lives. Sure, our food was kept fresh and we were comfortable with the air conditioning running. Reducing our bill wouldn't prevent either of those from happening but it would force us to look at what was important to us on a daily basis.
We were already using CFL bulbs but weren't doing much else in the world of energy conservation. The biggest sucker-of-energy in our home is certainly air conditioning. The summer of the 400.00 plus bills, we kept our thermostat at about 75 degrees. All day, every day. That was where I started. Every other day, I would raise the thermostat by a degree. At first, no one noticed. Then around day four, people started getting a little cranky. Within a week, our thermostat would be set at 79 degrees (higher sometimes) and everyone adjusted. The surprising added benefit would be that our youngest daughter, who has Sjogren's syndrome (an autoimmune disease that damages the moisture producing glands in your body) would stop having almost daily nosebleeds. Less air conditioning brought more than just the blessing of a lower bill. Sometimes, if we are going to have a bunch of company, we turn the thermostat down a bit temporarily.
We did install two additional ceiling fans as well as a whole house fan. The whole house fan was installed in our kitchen ceiling. When it is turned on, we crack the sliding doors and windows in order for the fan to suck the outside cooler air in. We also kick it on when I've been cooking a lot and the kitchen is extra warm. We've watched our inside temperature drop 3 degrees in fifteen minutes with that fan running. We installed it for less than 200.00. This isn't something we use in the heat of summer, but when we have cool mornings or evenings we make the most of cooling the house for a lot less money. We keep our blinds and shutters closed during the day. It's a sacrifice, but one more way we keep the heat of the day at bay. Before summer my husband will be putting up a sun shade on our air conditioning unit outside. Still allowing air to circulate, but keeping the sun from beating on it and heating it up is our goal.
In addition to keeping our cooling costs down, we started unplugging and turning everything off more consistently. I also changed a few things about laundry day. A lot of our laundry is air dried. In the great state of Florida, clotheslines are protected as energy saving devices, so no deed restrictions can prevent you from having one in either your back or side yard. Cool, right? Mostly I dry laundry on our screened lanai and in the laundry room on hangers. First thing in the morning, I do two loads and put them out to dry. The jeans are a little stiff, but my family has stopped complaining. According to the electric company, drying a load of laundry costs between 30 and 50 cents in energy. That doesn't include the fact that if your dryer is indoors, you are also raising the temperature of your home. My goal was to save a dollar a day in drying costs.
We made a few more changes to reduce our energy costs:
When the oven is going to be turned on, I plan ahead to bake everything needed for the week, reducing the frequency of heating up the house.
Cook outside, using slowcookers and roasters on the lanai, using the countertop grill instead of the oven.
Allow dishes to air-dry in the dishwasher
Replacing and adding weatherstripping to doors and windows
Adding extra attic insulation where needed
At the end of the day, it was all worth making the change. Our highest summer electric bill has been almost 100.00 less than what it was before. I keep an eye on our monthly kilowatt hour usage and challenge myself to lower it more. It will be interesting to see if we can get through the summer with lower power bills than we saw last year. That's my goal.
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