Tägliche Haupterneuerung-Spitzen

In 2005 it became imperative that I get our household expenses in hand. We live in Texas, where the deregulation of the electricity market was supposed to be a good thing. It has been — for the energy companies. At the time my personal campaign started, we were paying, on average, about .31 cents per kWh.

You see, the price of juice down here can vary daily, a fact most people don’t realize. I’m writing this in January 2010 when we’re currently paying .13 cents per kWh, just a penny above the national average. Those numbers will look a lot different in July and August as this usage graph from our most recent electric bill shows.

My efforts, however, were going to be hampered by a number of factors beyond my control. I care for an elderly relative who is a stroke survivor. She is completely heat intolerant and wants the house at 70 degrees during the summer. Fort Worth, where we live, topped out at 105 degrees on June 27, 2009.

But a simple reading on the thermometer doesn’t take into account the temperature-heat index or the affect of living in the city’s “heat island” where concrete and asphalt absorb the sun’s energy and turn our surroundings into an oven. Additionally, the roof of our 1,770 sq. foot town home is not shaded in any way. During the hot months, our AC churns 24/7. Many modifications, like investigating home solar power weren’t an option thanks to a restrictive homeowner’s association.

As I began to learn about the task ahead of me, I found out that according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average household in America uses 10,656 kWh per year. I dug out our old electrical bills, did the math, and was aghast to discover that over the last year we’d paid for 23,113 kWh. Better than twice the national average! Something had to change immediately.

During those first months, I tackled the basics, the kinds of things you read about in any “how to save electricity” article. I changed out all the incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent. The CFLs use 2/3 less energy, generate 70% less heat, and last ten times longer. However, even five years ago, the bulbs emitted a cold, unpleasant light my housemate hated. Thankfully, that has improved dramatically, to the point that she no longer notices a difference.

The idea of producing less heat in the house seemed like a good way to offset the AC usage, so I began to look for ways not to use the oven. Granted, an electric oven set at 350 degrees only uses about 2 kWh an hour, but the greater issue was super expensive climate control. The microwave, which can do the same job in a quarter of the time uses only 0.36 kWh and you can let a slow cooker do all the work for six hours at just 0.7 kWh. Ditto for a rice steamer; all with negligible heat production.

These items, plus a small electric grill became staples of our kitchen. In and of themselves, they accounted for minor electrical savings, but I was no longer adding to the internal temperature at the hottest times of the day — noon and 5-6 o’clock. These changes, plus the use of ceiling and area fans to boost air flow, helped us pull some of the load off the AC and come closer to maintaining the cool my housemate demands.

In many ways, attacking energy waste based on bad habits was more complicated. My late father used to demand to know if I thought he owned the electric company and I’ve gotten just as bad. The old “fifteen minute rule” is a myth. You always save money turning a light out and there’s no reason to have a light on in an empty room.

There’s also no reason to be charging thin air. “Vampire” devices that draw idle current are huge culprits in home electrical waste. Don’t just unplug the cell phone; unplug the charger too or you’re wasting money. Even after five years, I still have trouble with this one. It’s just so darn easy to leave that charger plugged in, but by some estimates vampire devices eat up 65 million kWh annually in this country!

During the first year, the only physical modification I made to the house was applying do-it-yourself tinting to the dining room windows. After using a digital thermometer, I determined that was the room that was heating up most rapidly in the afternoons. The materials were inexpensive and the application took only a couple of hours.

Did any of these changes make enough of a difference to be worth it? Continue to Part 2 to find out the results. Numbers don’t lie.

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Editor’s Note: This two part article is by a guest writer, Rana K. Williamson, a journalist and former history professor, lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.  If you would like to write about your energy savings experience, just drop us an email.