Green Living
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
lowering energy bill
The city I live in is known for high energy bills, but mine has steadily rose since I moved in. I can't think of any more ways to decrease it. I use CFLs and unplug anything that isn't in use. My heat is on as low of a temp as I can stand, and only on at night while I'm home. I try to use the sun for light as much as possible, and make sure to turn off lights when I leave the room.
What am I missing?
The Klassiest blog around
Updated 9-2-12
Re: lowering energy bill
Are you in your own home or a rental? You can do more things to your own home than to a rental.
Ditto this. Your heater has to work much harder to bring the whole house up to its set temp at once that to turn on every once and awhile to maintain a low, steady temp. Our bills were also high and we did all the same measures you did. We moved the curtains one day and felt cold air *pouring* in through our old windows. We can't afford to replace them, so we put in thermal curtains and plastic sheeting from HD. They both work very well, and our heater runs much less frequently now, bringing our utility bill down.
We're in a rental, too, and I just realized that something I've been wanting to do is a lot less work than I thought.
I can feel cold air leaking in through our outlets on the wall, and I had been wanting to insulate them. I assumed it was a lot more work and that I'd need landlord permission to do something like that, but it looks like you can buy outlet seals for super cheap and installing them would be a piece of cake. I think I might go buy some this weekend.
Do you have a hot water heater? If you touch it, does it feel warm? If it does, you can buy an insulating jacket at a hardware store and install it per the instructions. They're really easy to do and will keep your water heater from working so much.
A lot of energy usage comes from dryers, the heated dry cycle on dishwashers, and electric ranges. Is it possible for you to try air drying some of your clothes if you have an electric dryer? We haven't dried your dishes in the dishwasher in years. It's certainly not necessary; we just crack open the dishwasher when it's done and let them air dry.
Other than that, I'm not sure what else to suggest for you. It sounds like you've done the minor things that make a big difference. Maybe you can turn your heat down a little bit more and use an electric blanket or mattress pad when you sleep? I'm not sure how much energy they use but I would assume it's less than heating your whole home overnight when it's the coldest.