Save Money, Save Energy

The economy is struggling as are most Americans right along with it.  We are looking for different ways to save some money.  Whether it is cutting down on driving the car to save on gas, clipping coupons, or reusing items more than once, everyone is doing their own part to save a few bucks on the bottom line.

One of the areas you can save some money on right now is energy costs.  When I say energy I mean a combination of electrical, heating, ac, and water usage.  Adding in small savings from all of these areas could add up to big savings.

Electrical is the easiest to save some money on.  Without spending thousands of dollars on a solar panel system for your roof tops, here are some more realistic approaches you can implement right now to help save on costs.  First replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs in the rooms that you use the most.  The federal government has shown that this can save up to $120 per year in savings on electrical costs.  Remember to unplug all appliances that are not in use.  Many appliances still draw power even though you are not using them.  The easiest option is to plug you appliances into a surge protector outlet strip and then shut off the strip to ensure no power is being drawn.

Regardless of whether you have a gas clothes dryer or one that runs off electric, a clothes dryer uses large amounts of energy that cost a whole bunch of money.  During the warmer months use a clothes line.  I read one estimate where savings for the average household that uses a clothesline over a clothes dryer topped $750 for the year.  Now I won’t say you will save that much, but then again depending on how often you use the dryer, you could save more.

Staying with our clothes theme, let’s turn to your washer.  Most of the energy used by a washer occurs when the water is being heated.  Drop the hot was cycles and choose cold.  Many detergents today are engineered to work in colder temperatures for this reason.  Also choose the correct water level.  There is no need to select extra large if you are doing a medium sized load.

When it comes to heating and air conditioning there are some easy steps you can take to help reduce costs.  For instance in the winter time drop your heat a degree or two at night when you go to bed and when no one is home.  No sense in heating the home if no one is there.  Invest in a good programmable thermostat so you can program your house temperatures that are convenient to you and your family.  Same goes for AC in the summertime.  When no one is home raise the temperature so the AC is not cooling a house as often when it is empty.  If you do not have central AC, make sure you get the right size window or room unit for where it will be used.  You wouldn’t buy a 50,000 BTU window unit for a 9x9 room.  You get the point.

These are just a few of the many ways you can make alterations to your current lifestyle and save money in the process.  Overall these tasks won’t take more than a few minutes of your time, but the monetary savings will be well worth it.

About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pays them for their articles.  You can also follow Bruce on Twitter.

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