Running a family, keeping everyone happy and juggling all the other responsibilities that come with keeping a home can be stressful indeed. On top of that, of course, there’s also the major need of paying close attention to finances, especially ensuring that you stay in-line with a budget and try to keep your bills as low as possible.
When it comes to household appliances, especially things like fridges, freezers, dishwashers and drying machines, keeping your energy consumption rate down can have a really positive impact on your bills. As for ways to how to do it? Here are seven key ways to lower your families energy consumption.
Only Replace with Manufacturer Recommended Parts
We know it’s tempting to cut corners and save up-front costs fixing a broken appliance by replacing it with cheaper parts produced by little-known manufacturers but it’s likely to cause more problems in the long-run. Replacing your machine with parts not recommended by the manufacturer can cause its energy efficiency levels to suffer and suddenly see you using (and wasting) far more with the appliance than you would have done.
Maximise Usage
If you’ve purchased an expensive household appliance like a fridge, freezer and washing machine it makes sense to maximize your usage of these things as much as possible by paying close attention to capacity. Washing on full loads means you do it less frequently, keeping a freezer and fridge fully-stocked means you waste less energy on chilling compartments with nothing in them.
Cleaning
Setting up a schedule to clean your appliances, making sure you stick to it and keep your appliances thoroughly clean and free of debris or other residual substances that could effect their performance is crucial. Maybe you could evenly distribute such chores throughout your family to take the load off you too.
Off-Peak Hours
Cooking and preparing food with energy-hungry microwaves, ovens and stoves can be done off-peak if you have a flexible schedule. This can really maximise your energy output and save costs by doing these activities away from the most common hours. The same can be said for clothes washing and drying as well as using air conditioning units too.
Positioning
By cleverly positioning appliances designed to keep things cool, like fridges, freezers and air conditioning units, in cooler places in your house, you can help improve their intended purpose while keeping the amount of energy they use reduced too. Perhaps a utility room or well-ventilated area of the house can help wish washing machines and dryers also.
Cold Water
Using cold water, whenever possible, is a really neat trick that can help cut energy usage in your washing machine. Making this switch can sometimes result in cutting usage almost in half as the amount required to heat water before cleaning can lead to more energy being units being required despite cleaning your clothes no more effectively or thoroughly as a cold water wash might do.
Doors
Paying closer attention to the doors on appliances like fridges and freezer is another important way in which you can reduce energy consumption and help keep costs down.
The longer doors are open for the more air is lost from these appliances and the more energy is required to help cool air and get it circulating effectively again.
Hopefully these simple yet practical tips can help you keep on top of your household budget while not comprising on the many benefits that household appliances bring.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Have you tried any of these ways to try to cut down on your family’s energy consumption?
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Comments
43 responses to “7 Smart Ways to Drive Your Families Energy Consumption Down”
Thanks for sharing this. Energy bills are one of the highest things we pay monthly.
I am thankful that our house is energy efficient but there are still some things that we can do to cut down on electric consumption.
These are great tips. People always scoff at using what the manufacturer suggests for replacing parts, but they’re suggested for a reason!
I usually use OEM parts just because they are cheaper.
Ugh, if my boys would just turn off the light when they leave a room, we would save a small fortune. Great tips.
Yes, I wish my kids would do the same thing. 🙂
I do try to use cold water when I can. Sometimes it is difficult to wait to do full loads of laundry, but I do try. Thanks for all of the tips!
My kids seem to generate a ton of laundry. I have a full load almost every day. 🙁
Pur electyric bill jumped 35 some dollars this month, I was shocked! It’s time to reevaluate what I am doing woring around the house. Thnks for the tips.
Oh no! I hope you figure it out. Don’t forget to check for a rate increase on your bill. If possible search for a lower rate.
Energy, Food and Housing are so high in my state it’s always great to find tips to reduce those costs wherever possible!
It is expensive to live these days. I am always looking for ways to save money. I love using coupons and we always search energy prices about every two years so we can lock in the lowest rates possible.
So many great tips. My kids leave lights on, tvs on.. Etc so our bills can get pretty high. Drives me nuts.
My kids do the same thing. They just don’t realize that everything is so expensive.
Our electric bill has been insane lately and I don’t know why. I wash my clothes on cold, but my mom lives with me and is still stuck in the “must wash certain things in hot” mode. I will go through the house and make sure we’re following these tips! I’m at the point where everyone is going to have to learn to roast during the summer and wear more clothes during the winter to cut down costs!
Nikki, some of the electric providers will come out and do a free analysis on your home. Might be worth checking into. I hope these tips are helpful.
These are really great tips and ways to save on energy. It’s weird how I moved from one place to a larger one and my light bill went down. Not sure how that happened but we always do things to cut down.
Your new place might be more energy efficient. I am thankful that our house is energy efficient if not we would have high bills too.
These are some really great tips, I try to teach these things to my kids but of course I’m like a broken record with “CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND YOU!”.
Yes, I have been on repeat already this summer. My son loves to leave the backdoor open when he lets the dogs out. I have to tell him why it is important to close the door quickly. 😉
Great tips, I think we all need to become more conscious of the little changes we can make to conserve.
I need to do that too! Thank you for visiting.
Thanks for the tips! I’m always looking to keep our consumption down – our electric bill can be HIGH in the summer!
Good luck, I hope these tips help.
We don’t clean our appliances nearly often enough. They have been neglected for sure. Also, we use too much hot water, but that’s partially my fault because I love long hot showers.
I don’t either. My mom used to do it all time. Not me. I need to work on that so that our appliances last longer.
These are great tips, I just moved into my first ever apartment alone and I am always looking for ways to save money.
Congratulations! I hope that this post helps. 🙂
Honestly, we’ve been trying to cut down on our energy consumption, but I haven’t tried those ways except for the doors. There are some ways that I’ve been doing that is also helping us cut down on energy consumption.
Thank you for visiting, I hope that these tips are helpful.
I always turn lights off but that’s about it. These are really great tips and I will definitely put them to good use!!
Turning the lights off is a start. I do that during the day in the summer time because it helps keep the house cooler and saves electricity.
I can’t tell you how many times I have found the refrigerator door not closed all the way. Ugh, it drives me crazy!
Oh no. I have had that happen a time or two. I always tell my kids not to stand with the refrigerator door open.
These are all great tips! My family and I have been trying to use less energy as well.
Thank you for visiting Carly, it sounds like this post came at a perfect time. I hope that it is helpful.
I’m really curious about off peak hours. I had never heard of that before. So we would get charged less if we cooked at 3am versus 7pm?
You will have to check with your power company. Off peak hours are usually at night in the summer and during the day during the winter time because you tend to use less electricity.
Hi Christy
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nice post thanks for posting useful tips, i found helpful
Regards,
kathir
it is also important. thanks for sharing.
Great read . Love the idea on Share Triggers. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the new training material you’ll be releasing. Looking forward to it
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