Saving Electricity and Thinking Green

There are gadgets that you can have installed to save electricity.  If you are interested, your own power company is a good place to start.  They can put timers on your hot water heater and air conditioner.  My power company charged a small per month fee for the priviledge but you should save more than you spend.

However, the best way to save money is to look at what you have that uses power and ask yourself how you can conserve it.  How many times do we go out and leave our computers running?  I know we think that it’s ok because it will go into sleep mode but it is still drawing power.  Does your printer have a little green light shining on it?  It’s drawing power.  Granted, these are small things but they all add up.  An easy way to deal with appliances that are grouped together like your printer, scanner, computer, etc.  is to plug them into an electric strip that has an on/off switch on it.  Then when you are done for the night, you simply press the switch and all the little lights go out.  Don’t forget to include your modem, TV, etc.  Sometimes things like our TVs are drawing power so that they will stay warm and start quickly.  You really don’t need that extra start time if you get in the habit of turning on the TV and then going for your coffee or visit the restroom.  When you return, the TV will be on and you will have put that start up time to good use.

Speaking of TVs, do you really need it blaring in the background while you are trying to get some work done?  Get in the habit of checking the listings and putting it on for the shows you want to watch but turn it off when you are done.  Alternatively, I like to wait a day or two and watch my shows on line through a program like http://hulu.com .  That way there are fewer commercial breaks and I can check email or update my Squidoo lenses as I am watching my show.  To make it easier, since I use a laptop, it is easy to hook an old monitor to the back of it and watch the show on that while I work.  You have to go into your desktop properites and widen your viewing screen so that it includes the monitor but I like having it added.  Since the monitor is on my desktop, it is easy to turn off when I don’t need it.  In addition to shows, I use it when I have more than one program open and need to refer back and forth.  It’s much easier than working off one screen.  Since many of us are using laptops and there are a lot of old monitors hanging around, this is one way to keep something you thought you no longer needed from going to the landfill.

Since this is a blog, feel free to add your own ideas.  Together we really can make a difference.

Tags: Cheap Living, Electricity, Energy, green living, save money