Living Frugally
One of my all-time favorite sites is Fatwallet.com. They have great forums for sharing financial advice, finding free stuff, and finding hot deals.
Recently I discovered a very interesting topic in their finance forum regarding living frugally. Within this topic, there are hundreds of posts from people sharing their own ideas about how to save money. Check it out:
http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/417537/
Some of my favorite ideas mentioned are:
"Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs whenever possible."
These bulbs use just 13 watts of energy and burn as bright as a 60 watt bulb! I recently purchased 6 of these and installed them in my most used rooms.
"Unplug all unecessary things when going away on vacation, especially computer, monitor, TV, etc, as they will still draw power when off."
I have most of my larger appliances plugged into surge protectors, so when I'm not using them I flip the switch to off on the surge protector to eliminate wasted current draw.
Go for the Tankless water heater. Can produce hot water for hours continuously on demand. There is no tank to keep warm all day long, saving lots on energy."
I live in an apartment so I have no choice here. But this is an excellent idea and one piece of advice that I will certainly use when I have my own home. I read an article a while back that said that the second most energy consuming appliance in a home is the hot water heater, behind heating/air conditioning.
And now, I'd like to add my own favorite tip:
"Use a portable electric heater!"
This is my favorite and most efficient way to save money on electricity. It saves me literally hundreds per year. I actually keep my central heat turned off completely. When I come home if it is really cold (below 55) I will turn on the central heat for about 15 minutes to get the house heated up quickly and then turn it back off. I will then use a portable electric heater to heat the room I am in. Pretty much every electric heater is 1500 watts on high power. This is less than 1/3 of the energy that a central heating unit would use. Plus, you can use the low setting and it will only draw about 700 watts. Even at night, I keep the central heat turned off and run an portable electric heater on low power. It stays very comfortable, especially with the bedroom door closed and our down-filled comforter. When we get out of bed it is slightly cool, but we just crank it up to high power and jump in the hot shower. Don't be afraid to try this. You will be surprised how comfortable it is and how much you will save!
Recently I discovered a very interesting topic in their finance forum regarding living frugally. Within this topic, there are hundreds of posts from people sharing their own ideas about how to save money. Check it out:
http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/417537/
Some of my favorite ideas mentioned are:
"Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs whenever possible."
These bulbs use just 13 watts of energy and burn as bright as a 60 watt bulb! I recently purchased 6 of these and installed them in my most used rooms.
"Unplug all unecessary things when going away on vacation, especially computer, monitor, TV, etc, as they will still draw power when off."
I have most of my larger appliances plugged into surge protectors, so when I'm not using them I flip the switch to off on the surge protector to eliminate wasted current draw.
Go for the Tankless water heater. Can produce hot water for hours continuously on demand. There is no tank to keep warm all day long, saving lots on energy."
I live in an apartment so I have no choice here. But this is an excellent idea and one piece of advice that I will certainly use when I have my own home. I read an article a while back that said that the second most energy consuming appliance in a home is the hot water heater, behind heating/air conditioning.
And now, I'd like to add my own favorite tip:
"Use a portable electric heater!"
This is my favorite and most efficient way to save money on electricity. It saves me literally hundreds per year. I actually keep my central heat turned off completely. When I come home if it is really cold (below 55) I will turn on the central heat for about 15 minutes to get the house heated up quickly and then turn it back off. I will then use a portable electric heater to heat the room I am in. Pretty much every electric heater is 1500 watts on high power. This is less than 1/3 of the energy that a central heating unit would use. Plus, you can use the low setting and it will only draw about 700 watts. Even at night, I keep the central heat turned off and run an portable electric heater on low power. It stays very comfortable, especially with the bedroom door closed and our down-filled comforter. When we get out of bed it is slightly cool, but we just crank it up to high power and jump in the hot shower. Don't be afraid to try this. You will be surprised how comfortable it is and how much you will save!
posted by Jonathan Bright @ 9:15 AM
RSS
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home