Simple Ways to Start Saving Energy

One of the things you hear about most often is to use Smart Power Strips

to stop vampire or phantom power loads. Basically a lot of electrical appliances use at least a little bit of electricity even when they are turned off. Maybe it’s to keep the clock running or to record TV shows in the case of cable or satellite boxes. The question is which appliances are the energy hogs and which can you leave plugged in?

I was curious to figure this out at home so I got a little gadget called a Kill A Watt. It plugs into any regular wall outlet and then you can plug something else into the Kill A Watt. It then measures the electricity usage of whatever you have plugged in.

I measured things like the coffeepot since it had a clock. Because I use the timer on the coffeepot to make coffee at a certain time each morning I wanted to know if it was worthwhile to keep it plugged in all the time. Turns out my coffeepot uses about .03 kilowatt hours each day on average (it has a thermal carafe so as soon as coffee is made, it turns off). So, for about 15 cents per month, I decided it could stay plugged in.

Other household appliances were not so lucky. The refrigerator and freezer, of course, stayed plugged in but it was interesting to see that the fridge uses 1.34 kilowatt hours each day and the freezer uses .87 kilowatt hours each day. Together, they cost about $10 each month. Not great, but not terrible.

For Christmas I was considering buying my husband a second wine refrigerator since we could only chill white or red wine with the one we had. I plugged in the Kill A Watt. That crazy thing was using 1.8 kilowatt hours each day just to keep 12 bottles of wine at the proper temperature. It was costing us $8 each month to keep those bottles of wine chilled. So, not only did I not buy I second one, we unplugged the first wine fridge too!

The easiest way to reduce your energy consumption is to install CFL or LED lighting in your home. The LED lighting is amount the lowest energy use lighting you can install and the bulbs last a very long time, while CFL lighting also greatly reduce energy use compared with traditional incandescent. The LED are more expensive, but will pay for themselves many times over.

Other energy suckers in our home were the aquarium, the computer area and the TV (when it was on). The computer and TV areas were easily fixed with SmartStrips that allow certain items to stay on all the time. For example, in the TV area, when we turn off the TV everything else is completely turned off, the same as if it were unplugged, except for the satellite box which we use to record shows.

Another way that you can reduce your energy use is to install an Evolve smart showerhead, which detects if the water is hot and turns off the flow until you release it. This is a great energy saver if you're the type who turns on the shower and then does other things until it warms up. Once that shower water hits 97, it stops and stays hot waiting for you. This can add up to quick savings if used every day.

If you’re worried that you are using too much electricity for heating or cooling, you might consider checking with your electric company. Many offer free energy audits. This is a great opportunity to potentially use tools like thermal imaging cameras to find out hot and cold spots in your house. Different electric companies offer different services and many contract out the audits to an outside vendor. That outside vendor may be trying to sell you something so watch out for recommendations that line up perfectly with products that they sell. Some may be right on and others may not. Whatever methods you choose, it is definitely worthwhile to take a close look at the amount of energy you are using at home. You may find many opportunities to use an energy saving kits reduce what you are using at home or the office.