Cut your electric bill in half!
One of the first things we did when we purchased this house was start our energy saving projects. A lot of homesteading is about getting those outgoing expenses to a minimum and who wants to pay more for something when you can get the same thing for much less! My first full electric bill in this home was for October of 2012. Since then we have done a myriad of energy saving projects and this September's bill was the first true comparison to last year. The verdict:
- Energy usage for September of 2012 = 1051 kWh's
- Energy usage for September of 2013 = 512 kWh's
We used 539 less kWh's comparing this year to last year. There are always slight differences between the years. Last year we did not have our youngest
until partly through the month and I spent 4 days at the hospital so we had only 3 people in the house for those days instead of the current 5. The average temperatures this year was 94/69, last year it was 93/70 so there was no significant difference in that.
Here is what we did to save money on our electric bill:
- Switched to a gas tankless water heater
- Installed a Nest thermostat
- Installed Gila heat film on our windows
- Stopped using our clothes dryer
- Switched some of our lights to LED bulbs
I would like to switch the rest of our light bulbs to LED, but I will probably do that as the CFL's go out. I also would like to get a draft stopper for both the front and side door, but that will not be a significant change. The biggest benefit has been the ability to purchase a smaller solar power array. Each panel costs around $1000, so the less power you need, the smaller upfront cost you will have to come up with in order to switch to solar.
These were all easy changes (the tankless water heater was a little more involved, but still doable for most people). Together, they made a giant step towards making my homestead sustainable.
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Very nice post, advising saving of electricity. Everyone should follow the ways described in this post to save the electricity, as it will save lots of traditional fuel sources which are limited.