Daily Home Renovation Tips

During the first year of my personal campaign to cut energy costs in our 1,770 sq. foot town home in Fort Worth, Texas, I put up with a lot of teasing from our friends. One christened me the “Electricity Nazi” for obsessively turning off lights and unplugging gadgets. No one really believed that the little things I was doing would save enough money to be worth the trouble. They were wrong.

When I started, we were using 23,113 kWh per year, better than twice the national average of 10,656 kWh per year. By switching to CFL bulbs, altering my cooking methods, augmenting our cooling system with fans, tinting the windows in one room, and getting on top of bad habits, I had, by the end of 2006, lowered that figure to 20,817 kWh. While that was still far too much, with minimum effort I reduced our usage by 2,296 kWh and saved $724.41.

I was facing some unique challenges in going beyond these levels. I live with an elderly relative who is a stroke survivor and who is completely heat intolerant. North Texas frequently sees temperatures of 105 degrees and above in July and August — and our roof has zero shade. The climate control gods smiled on me in 2007, however, when our air conditioner compressor failed. I may be one of the few people who has ever been glad for a dead AC.

In consultation with a technician I trusted, we selected an Energy Star-rated replacement unit that was the right size for our space. It was a hefty upfront investment of more than $1,500, but the difference in our energy bills was even greater than my modest results from the previous year. By the end of 2007, we were down to 17,984 kWh, a drop of another  2,833 kWh. Over two years, I had successfully lowered our energy consumption by 5,129 kWh or roughly 20%.

Since 2007, we have continued to average about 18,000 kWh per year. I religiously record the figures every month from the statement. A lot of energy inefficiency is just giving in to bad habits. If I see the numbers going up, I know I’m being lazy, for instance leaving a lamp on in my home office instead of working by the light from the window aided by an LED task light, which is more than adequate. I really urge keeping monthly records as part of any effort to lower your electric bill. It keeps you accountable.

If I did not live with an older person who is painfully sensitive to heat and cold, I know I could drive these numbers down farther. What I have proven, however, is that the most simple changes can make a major difference and that initial success encourages even better behavior. Just recently friends helped me clean out and reorganize our garage with a surprising result.

Next week I’ll be donating an old refrigerator and freezer to Goodwill. They’ve been sitting in the garage drawing power for years. Why didn’t I get rid of them before? I have no good answer for that. Lethargy probably and ignorance definitely. I never bothered to look up the fact that most refrigerators use about 1,462 kWh a year! I suspect unplugging those two appliances will equal savings as large as those I saw in 2006 and 2007.

Rather than being upset with myself, I’ve taken this to be a lesson that when you think you’ve done everything you can do to save electricity — you haven’t. Every energy saving action counts and they all add up. It would have been more interesting to put up a residential wind turbine or solar collectors on the roof, but the small changes I could and did make shaved more than $1,200 a year off our electrical bill. That’s definitely worth the time and effort!

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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.