General Power Saving Tips

Wow this is great :) thanks for the tips everyone!

I have the special green bulb's and I've been using the same ones for about 2-3 years now, they've been excellent! And their pretty darn resilient too.
 
My power company sends emails out with news letters and info for rebates every now and then. They had Cree LED light bulbs as a 6 pack for $20. So since we have all the bulbs changed already, I called Mom and asked if they wanted to change out theirs. She said yes so I ordered the bulbs. Then I stopped by Costco and picked up some bathroom bulbs so they no longer have 6 bulbs sucking power in there. That should help make a difference in their power bill
 
It doesn't feel like made a huge difference at first but in the end I think i save about 10+ dollars a month. Twinnie falls asleep with the lights on a lot when I'm working late...
 
Lights: Could you get into the habit of turning lights off when you leave a room? A family could save between £50 and £90 a year just by remembering to turn things off, if they don't already do this. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013).

Showers: How about replacing a soak in the bath with a shower once a week? You’ll be surprised how much energy you could save this way.

Washing machines: Check out your washing machine’s settings, see if there’s a ‘half load’ option for small amounts of clothes. With modern washing powders, you can usually choose a lower temperature on your washing machine too.
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Line dry my clothes, regardless of rain (inside lines as well as out), unless its very cold and I don't mind using the gas dryer but to double dip and use as heater, as well as dryer.
Recently bought several solar charging units as Christmas gifts and as house accessories, so now our electronics are off grid and our neighbor's kids and nieces are off grid with their things, as well. Portable aspect of it is nice when leaving home too.
All inside lights are LEDs, but I still need to buy the old fashion, heat generating lights to provide warmth for my chicks and ducklings when I incubate.
Changed from a regular PC to a laptop. Less power and much neater.
Just sat here thinking about how much money my house is currently costing me to run and I realized the most expensive thing running was my coffee maker, and that was probably more because of the cost of running the burner at the bottom, so I ordered a used Black and Decker Thermal Coffee Maker from Amazon for $37.......12 cup. I realize it will take a while for it to pay me back, but eventually it should happen.
I use a bed warmer in all beds that humans occupy, during the winter. If we go to bed with a fire in the stove, recently fed and during the night it goes out and the house begins to cool, at least the people in bed are warm. An adult can get up early and clean and load the fire and do whatever else to quickly warm up the living areas, while children sleep in warm beds.
 
I also cut energy usage on the coffee pot by pouring the freshly brewed coffee into a thermos. I think it tastes better that way too instead of 'cooking' continuously while keeping warm on the heating element. We've recently started line drying clothes - by necessity, lol. Heating element (I think) went out in the dryer. I've always enjoyed line drying clothes anyway, so I'm ok with it. DH is going to try to replace the element himself, hoping to save us even more money. I also went to LED bulbs recently too. Still haven't replaced all of them, but started with the lights that are used the most. And the thing that I think will save us the most money is turning off the breaker to the hot tub during the week. No reason to heat all that water 7 days a week when we only use it, at most, one or two times on the weekends.
 
I got into the habit of line drying out of necessity also and refused to buy a new dryer. I pulled out the repair books and was getting ready to fix it myself when DS bought a $3 part and fixed it for me. But we went 4 months without any dryer at all and survived and even after that, I was in the line drying mode and kept up with it. Almost all the time that the dryer is used, its because someone else did the clothes.
I have used a thermos for my coffee, but seems DS never uses it, so figured if I bought a new coffee pot, he'd have no choice.....I'll get my way regardless.
My current coffee pot can go to my garage sale.
 
My house is a 2 story with bedrooms/bath up. Master bdrm/bath is down. I put a pressure rod at bottom of stairs with clear plastic shower curtain to keep the gravity rise of heat up there. Doors are close to bedrooms, bath is in center & plenty warm enough to keep from freezing in extreme temps. Since I am only one here, saves heat & keeps heat down where I am. Heated mattress pad keeps tootsies warm at night!

Switch ceiling fans to reverse in winter. HW heater off all but couple hrs every other day. Plenty of HW for me..(50 gal tank)

I, too, have carafe for coffee to keep hot all day. AND It was a free one. LOL. I cook larger meals & used leftovers to reheat in MW, freeze for other days. My windows are Argon filled and have the E-glaze. I pull shades at night as added insulation for cold, open on sunny side in day for free solar heat. Summer, I leave shades down on sunny side to keep cooler. Porches full length of house front & back give shade in summer & open those window shades/windows depending on weather.

Laminate floors are left uncovered in summer & have large rugs in winter, lvgrm & dngrm. Bedrooms w/w carpet. Windows & ceiling fans keep house cool enough except in extremes for summer. I open windows at night for cool are, close in day when hot out. House holds temps very well.
 
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