203 Money Saving Ways to Put Cash Back in your Pocket With Heat/A-C and Lights/Electricity

203 Money Saving Ways to Put Cash Back in your Pocket By Looking At Heat/A-C and Lights/Electricity Habits

Read About the Other 203 Budget Tips Here:

Save Money With Heat/A-C and Lights/Electricity Items:

Save Money On Heat/A-C:  8 Tips

  1. Go through your house and identify heating and cooling inefficiencies.
  2. For appliances – Lower temperatures on your washing machine and water heater and raise them on your freezer and refrigerator.
  3. Service your furnace yearly. – Replace or clean air filters.
  4. Get  insulation for your hot water heater and pipes.  This is especially important in unheated home areas.
  5. Instead of running your air conditioning constantly, try using fans, ceiling fans, screen doors and open windows to help cool things off.
  6. Windows and doors are notorious for leaks.  Seal yours with weather stripping or caulking.
  7. Use your fireplace and cut your own wood, but remember to close the fireplace damper when  you aren’t using it – Or it will act like a vacuum, taking your nice, warm, air right up the chimney!
  8. Cover your windows – We discovered how well plastic works to keep in heat accidentally one year by using plastic window decorations for Halloween.  It worked so well that we got colorful holiday window decorations for those holidays next in line – all through the winter months.  Savings was approximately 15% +.  Bonus – we could still use the windows and see out of them!  And we found exceptional holiday window decorations at the dollar store!

Save Money On Electricity/Lights:  29 Tips

  1. Can you reduce your frozen goods to one freezer and refrigerator – Sell the second one.
  2. Use Compact Fluorescent lights (CFL’s) to save 75% + in electricity
  3. Better yet – Use Light Emitting Diodes (LED) to save 90% + in electricity
  4. Turn off the lights – I posted a sign by each light switch that said, “Turn me off before you Go, Go – I’m not planning on burning solo!” (your teenagers will roll their eyes at you and complain loudly when you do this, but – It Works – especially if you point it out to their friends too!).
  5. Use a timer for all lights when you’re gone and holiday lights – Really, who needs to see your Christmas lights after midnight – EVER.
  6. Unplug the little appliances and computers  when they aren’t being used.   Two schools of thought on computers:   1)  Turning computers off and on repeatedly can harm them and wear them out faster. 2)  Turning computers off and on repeatedly won’t wear them out so much faster that you’ll notice the difference.
  7. Shut the doors on appliances – refrigerator and freezer BOTH.  If seals need to be replaced – do it.
  8. Unfreeze your frozen foods in the refrigerator – It helps keep your refrigerator even more  cool.
  9. Bring your clothesline inside to dry clothes in the winter.
  10. Clean your dryer lint filter for every load you dry.  Clothes dry faster and more efficiently this way.
  11. Replace inefficient appliances with energy efficient appliances – You’ll save 50-75% more with these more efficient appliances.
  12. Use stove burners to fit the size of the pot – they will heat faster and more efficiently.
  13. Learn to cook without opening your oven door to check your food – use the oven window, cooking time or even a cooking thermometer instead of letting the heat out of the open oven door.
  14. Tinfoil folded (molded) to your stove burner pans keeps heat concentrated on your pans.
  15. Using a microwave to re-heat food cuts back 50% from heating on the stove – My opinion is that a microwave changes the food elements (and not in a good way), so I will forego this tip for stove heating instead, and pick up this savings somewhere else.  It’s up to you – grab a few pieces of research on the internet to help you decide.
  16. Turn off lights and anything electrical behind you.  Even the smallest appliances use energy you pay for.
  17. Cook with covered pots. It takes much less energy to cook if the pot is covered.
  18. Use pot lids that fit the pot – go through cabinets and match lids.  If your pots don’t match your lids, get rid of the lids and get a universal lid for several size pots with ridges to fit different sized pots.  Free up the valuable real estate in your cupboards by eliminating pots without lids and lids without pots.
  19. Only wash full loads – Both Laundry AND dishes.
  20. Consider compact fluorescent options when you are  replacing your light fixture.
  21. Wash your own dishes, but if you don’ have time try to stop your dishwasher on the rinse cycle and let them air dry with the door open – takes approx 1/2 an hour.
  22. Use thermostats that you can regulate when no one is home and when people are sleeping and save energy.  You can reduce heating and cooling costs by as much as 10% this way.
  23. Use LED lights to cut light bills.
  24. Use timers for outdoor lights – especially with outdoor lights during holidays.  Nobody cares after midnight whether you have Christmas lights – Or not.
  25. Use rechargeable batteries.
  26. Laptops instead of desk top computers save significant energy.
  27. Turn your central air unit in the fuse box off over the winter and turn it back on when you need it in the summer.
  28. Consider using solar lights to save energy and they make great night lights for kids too!
  29. When you are cooking prepare ahead of time and turn on the stove once preparations are finished – instead of leaving the stove on the whole time you are preparing your food to cook.
Hold yourself accountable to Saving Money by Tracking Your Monthly Progress!  Return to the 203 Money Saving Ways To Save Page & Score Yourself!

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