I just caught an interesting news story the other night. An energy expert did a tour of a house and pointed out some of the ways people could save money. One of the killers were the powerbars. He stated that if the plugs in the are hot then they are wasting electrcity.

I tested the powerbar that I have my XBox360, Router and Cable Modem plugged into. Both the Modem and Router were very warm which means as they sit on all day they are draining power. So now before I go to bed and before I leave the house for the day or any length of time I am shutting off the power bar. No sense of wasting money letting it sit all day.

I have a couple of powerbars through the house and actually unplugged a few things I don't use often but were still warm. My wireless headphones for example charge all day and the plug was hot but I only use them when watching movies on the weekend. So they are now unplugged. Have a look around your house and see if you can save some electricity.

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Have you ever seen rolling blackout during the winter? Of course not. There's a reason why they happen during the summer and air conditioning is one of the main reasons. If you want to save money on your summer electric bill then you have to look at your current air conditioning situation and look to improve where you can.

1. Much like using a timer for a pool pump or your furnace using one for your air conditioning helps as well. Set it to turn off during the day when you are not at home and have it come on an hour or half an hour before you get home. Constantly cooling your home all day with the air running costs you money. Your house heats up, it comes on cools it down and the cycle goes on all day. Have it come on once during the day to cool it down (just before you get home) and you will save money. Why cool the house down several times a day when nobody is there?

2. Try raising the temperature a little bit. Ten degrees will make a huge difference but if you can do a bit at a time until you get used to it you are only going to save.

3. Install ceiling fans through out the house to circulate the cool air and make sure you are pushing the air down pushing the warmer air away from your body.

4. Make sure you maintain your ac unit by cleaning the filters and ensuring that it's running at 100%.

These are just a few tips I picked up from a great site on saving money by having a closer look at your air conditioning situation.

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How times have changed and then changed right back again. When I was a kid growing up everybody used a clothesline, then they disappeared because they were unfashionable and even banned here in some towns and cities in Ontario. Well I see now that the provincial government is seeking to overturn bylaws outlawing the traditional clothesline.

"Ontario is moving to lift the bans on clotheslines in a bid to save the air and energy as dryers account for about six percent of Ontario's household electricity demand, according to a published report."

Turn off that dryer and use a clothesline and you too can save money on your electricity bill. It's estimated that you can save $30 a year just by hanging 1/4 of your laundry outside to dry.  Not only will you save money but your clothes will smell fresher and will last longer. It's a no brainer. Top that with washing your clothes in cold water and you can save a bundle.

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It has been months since I replace virtually every incandescent light bulb in my house with the new energy saving compact flourescent (CFL) lights.

Lighting accounts for nearly 20% of the total energy we use in our homes and that is quite a bit. If we want to save money we must start thinking about cutting this expense down.

CFL's on average will use 60%-75% less energy than a regular incandescent light bulb and will last 10 times longer as well. The initial cost of CFL's may be more than incandescent bulbs but the above fact should be enough to sway you to purchase them. You are going to save money using them, period.

Some points to consider. Don't cheap out. Like anything else, they are cheap for a reason. Go to a Home Depot and ask about the different brands or research them online. Two, they do contain some mercury. The amount is trace and will not harm you but you need to dispose of them properly. Find a hazardous waste depot nearby or call you local government to find out where you can get rid of them when they expire. Finally, the do take a bit to warm up if they have been sitting idle for periods of time. Don't worry the room will light up just fine.

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There was an ad in our local paper the other for a company that would come over and free of charge they will take your old engery wasting refrigerator away and recycle it. A perfect idea for a blog post on saving money. How much of a difference does an old refrigerator make? An article on CNN today oddly enough gives the straight facts. If you ditch your pre-1993 fridge, you'll save enough on energy costs to buy coffee for nearly 80 days. Refrigerators qualified under the new Energy Star guidelines use less energy than a 75-watt light bulb left on full time. If your current model was built before 1993, it costs at least double to run than new Energy Star-rated models of the same size. That's and impressive savings no matter how you look at it.

What about the cost of purchasing a new refrigerators? You don't have to run out and buy a new one. There are lots of places like used appliance stores, ebay or even free internet swap sites or buy and sell sites. People are replacing their appliances all the time and you can benefit from this.

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My wife pointed out an interesting little gadget the other day that got me to thinking just home much electricity we are using over the summer. It going out through our pool filter and pump which is running 24-7. A pool timer will save your money on not only electricity but also in the amount of money you spend on chemicals. From some of the models I looked at, most estimate that you will save enough in electricity in the first month to pay for the timer and the rest is gravy. Except for during times of heavy use, most pools only need to filter for 12 hours per day. Why then run it for 24 hours when you don't have to. Have a look around your local pool store or hardware store.

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Yesterday an interesting conversation came up on the Labrador Retriever Chat Board regarding the energy use of video game consoles. After doing some digging in google I found some interesting results. Basically, all of the consoles out there are guilty of energy leakage when in standby mode. The worst of them all being the Xbox 360. It drains the most out of all of them when in standby mode, sitting at the dashboard or when playing a game and uses far more electricity to watch a movie then your standard DVD player. The bottom line, unplug if you aren't using and plug your console back in when using it. That little bit you can save is worth having the wrong date and time which is the only drawback of unplugging your video game console. Read the entire 7 page article at the Source.

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You would be amazed how many people are unaware of the built in power saving features of their computers. Using the power management settings on your personal computer will help in saving you money on your energy bill. Okay, not a boat load of money but if you have been following this blog you will know that every cent helps.

By enabling your screen saver and leaving your computer on you are not saving energy. You are simply saving the images on your computer from burning onto your screen. You must enable the power management features to actually turn off your monitor and to power down your hard drive. You will find these in XP under the Control Panel in Performance and Maintenance. Simply go into the Power Settings and set up your hard drive and monitor to power down after a set time.

Put the setting to 15 minutes, if you are away from the computer for more than this time your monitor will shut down and you hard drive will power down using way less energy thus saving you money. It may be a small step but remember, everything counts.

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I was just reading an article announcing the results of Earth Hour:

"Just before 9 o’clock, the meter at the Toronto Hydro control centre hit a low of 2,738 megawatts - 5 per cent below the demand an hour earlier and about 8.7 per cent less than a typical late March Saturday night."

"In Sydney, the event appeared to be at least as popular as last year, when 2.2 million people took part and electricity consumption fell by 10.2 per cent."

"Australian energy officials said electricity consumption was down by 1,000 megawatts across the country, the equivalent of shutting down two large generating stations."

Did we learn anything? I hope so, turn out those lights and cut down on your personal hydro and energy bill. Anytime we are home at night watching tv we have one light on in the house. It's small light over the stove so we can see our way around the kitchen and to the bathroom. There is no need to have a million lights on when you aren't entertaining and just hanging around the house. Why pay to light rooms that you are not in? When you go to the movies you are in the dark so why not turn out the lights when watching movies at home? There's a savings to be had, turn out your lights and save on your energy bill.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/article/407246 

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I am sure if you add up your electric bill over the past couple of years you would be surprised just how much money you have spent. Here are a couple of tips to lower that bill every month.

Wash your clothes in cold water whenever you can. Using hot water just adds to your electric bill. Even by using warm water instead of hot water helps. Take a look at that hot water pipe going to your taps, insulating it can help too.

Instead of running your dryer put up a clothes line outside or get some low cost racks for your basement to hang your clothes on. Even if you can hang them for couple of hours and then put them in the dryer for 10-15 minutes instead of running the dryer for an hour will help lower your bill.

Speaking of dryers, take a look at your appliances. If they do not have that energy saver sticker on them chances are they using a lot of hydro. Refrigerators,  washers and dryers are the worst culprits for wasting expensive electricity.

Don't forget to turn off lights and televisions when not using them. Have a look at your computer and make sure to use the power down feature or turn it off when you are not using it.

Those are just a few random tips that will help cut down on your electrical bill. If you have any more please comment.

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