How can I cut my energy bill in half?

Question

I used to have a different electric company that only charged 5 cents per kilowatt hour, now I moved and I'm charged 10 cents per kwh and to top it off, there's a customer fee of $11 per month. My bill is anywhere from $92-$150 per month. Not acceptable because our cable bill is $145 a month! Things are expensive around here.. our water bill is $45 per month because they also charge a customer charge of $11!!! My utility bills are taking way too much money out of our income.

These are the things that stay plugged in:

T.V.s- 2
DVR and Digital box- one each
All appliances (microwave, oven, washer/dryer)
Aquarium light, heater and filter- I'm not sure if this is driving up my bill or not, but the light is only 15 volts I think and it only runs 8 hrs a day. The filter stays on 24/7 though.

I desperately want a $60 electric bill again, but it's far from reach. I do about one load of laundry per day and use the dryer also. Generally 8-10 loads per week. Some are super loads, some are small because we have a small family and clothes get moldy if they stay in the hamper too long.

I don't know what to do here!

Answer 1

the clothes drier uses the most and the hot water heater if you have one. use cold water to wash clothes and dishes. get a clothes line to dry your clothes.. google"power consumption of house hold appliances" to see how much each one uses.

Answer 2

Here's a link to a list of things you can try to do to cut down on electricity usage. Hope it helps!



http://www.ase.org/content/article/detail/932

Answer 3

First thing you might want to try is adjusting your thermostat. I would keep it as warm as you could stand in the summer and as cold as you can stand in the winter ( I set mine at 80 in the summer and 67 in the winter). Second of all, EVERYTHING that is plugged in (especially electronics) uses energy, even when its turned off, so unplug it. Another thing to think about is instead of doing laundry all week, only do it once or twice a week. Your dryer uses more energy warming up than anything else, so if you run continuous loads you won't have to heat the coils up every time.

The last thing I would suggest is rethinking your cable bill. Take note of what you actually watch on TV, a lot of times people don't watch 2/3 of the channels that they have. Try downgrading, you can always upgrade later if you find you can't live without a certain channel. I have had to do this recently, and here's how I thought about it: "HBO is an extra $30 a month. That's $360 a year, what else could I do with that $360?" Try Netflix instead.

Sorry I'm so long winded. Hope this helps.