Live Smart: Energy Efficiency Tips to Make Your Home Smarter and Save You Money #DESmartHome
* Many thanks to Direct Energy for sponsoring today’s story and inspiring me to live a smarter and more eco-friendly lifestyle!
Spring is here in Southern California and with that means families are Spring Cleaning and thinking of ways to make their home a more efficient place.
I know I am! We just moved a month ago and I am slowly organizing everything. I have a lot of plastic containers that I have just thrown stuff into and it’s time to get everything organized and labeled properly.
By organizing my life I will be able to really see what my family truly needs, and what we can get rid of. A few other things I am doing around the house to make the home more efficient is switching all of our light bulbs to energy saving ones.
Energy saving light bulbs are probably the easiest way for people to save money. I have a few others that help my family save, and of course help our environment:
- Cloth Diapers – We line dry our diapers. I choose to cloth diaper because I didn’t want to spend a ton of money every month on disposable diapers that are full of chemicals. By line drying them I am saving money from using the electricity of the dryer. Plus a baby in cloth looks so stinking cute!
- Reusable Shopping Bags – Some counties now are banning the use of plastic shopping bags, and you get charged extra at the cash register. Well why not just take your own?
- Set your thermostat at a lower temperature – Yes this one might be a hard one but remember you can always add layers. We have actually been able to turn off our heater this past week, except wee did turn it on this weekend. But I have found I can leave it around 62 degrees and it stays quite nice inside.
- Using dishwashers and washer/dryers at night will keep the house cooler, reduce strain on the power grid during the peak usage hours of 4 PM and 6 PM and reduce the chance of an emergency!”
Direct Energy has some great tips as well, you can also learn about Direct Energy Meridian Savings Plan. With this plan you get a competitively priced fixed energy charge, up to three Honeywell Smart Thermostats at no additional cost, plus a smartphone app that allows you to control your thermostat anytime, anywhere.
Be sure to follow USA Direct Energy on Facebook.
* Many thanks to Direct Energy for sponsoring today’s story and inspiring me to live a smarter and more eco-friendly lifestyle!
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I really need to start remembering my reusable shopping bags more!
we have our house always cold its set to 58 so we never have the heater on we will just use the fire place.
Great tips. I always turn on our dishwasher before going to bed…. mainly because that whooshing sound lulls me to sleep, haha. But it’s great to know it also saves energy/money!
I should be using my own bags but I do think we do a lot to reduce our waste. I’d like to do better though!
I always forget my reusable bags in the car~~~ oops! We always have the air conditioning on in Orange County – I guess opening up the windows will help on costs 😉
I tried setting my thermostat lower, but got too cold and always ended up turning it up. So I just went back to keeping it at 68.
I use energy efficient light bulbs and recycle as much as I can
We recycle more than we throw away. That always feel good about that. But our light $ saving is not energy efficient.
Great tips… we try to set the thermometer to run at higher temps while we are out to save energy
We shop at Aldi a lot so we own several reusable grocery bags! They’re great for toting other things around too.
I have a million reusable bags that I never remember to keep in the car! Going to do that right now, thank you!
Great tips and advice. I am using more of my own bags nowadays.
Great tips. We are slowly switching out all of our bulbs and replacing them with LED bulbs to help us save a bit on lighting.
I always turn the dishwasher on after 11pm!!
I am so bad at remembering to bring my resueable bags with me when I go shopping. I should really learn to leave them in the car
Thanks for the great tips, every little bit counts and these are some wonderful ideas!
Such Great Tips & A Beautiful Baby I Do At Least Use Recyclable Bags I Try!
This is such a great reminder for me to embrace using reusable items!
These are so me great tips. I especially like the one of doing your laundry at night to save on electricity. Good idea. 🙂
What great tips. I dry most of my clothing outside or on a rack inside.
I miss cloth diapering but my daughter is almost fully potty trained. I love those reusable shopping bags, You can never have too many!
I’m taking your advice and using the dishwasher at night from now on. But I am good about turning the temperature way down at night. I like it cold when I sleep.
We always run the dishwasher at night. It makes a difference!
WHEN USING THE APPLIANCES AT NIGHT IS THIS BETTER TO DO IN SUMMER AS OPPOSED TO WINTER? OR DOES IT MATTER. THANKS FOR THIS TIP BECAUSE I NEVER KNEW THIS ONE.
We don’t use the dishwasher as much in the summer months. We wash the dishes by hand. It really does make a difference. We also dry some of our clothes outside on the clothes line, just so we can have the smell of summer in them.
great tips, we do them all ourselves. I need to be more consistent with cloth diapers though – washing laundry for 5 kids + cloth diapers got to be too much.
Line drying cloth diapers is so energy efficient, I love it. These are all great tips!
I really love the idea of layering and keeping the thermostat down. I say this as my house is like 77. I get so cold and I even layer my outfits too!
Well done! We try to be as eco-friendly as possible. I actually run the dishwasher just once a week… but I need to remember to use my cloth bags more!
If you keep your reusable shopping bags in the car, you will always have them when you shop.
Wow, I haven’t heard of some counties charging extra for using plastic bags. I try to use Reusable Shopping Bags whenever I can.
Great tips
My sister stays pretty cold all the time so she keeps the thermostat up higher than need be but the energy bulbs we make sure to use now.
such a helpfull post,we use reusable bags for our shopping trips..like the lowering thermost and bundle up;-)
These are very good tips! We took charge three years ago to lower our energy usage, began with changing all the light bulbs to energy saving ones and started seeing savings the next month. We have since made lifestyle changes that have become a way of life 🙂
We’ve done the light bulb switch and always use our own grocery bags. We have a programmable thermostat that turns down the temperature during the night.
Great tips, many we do, but some we need to start doing.thanks
I thought I was the only one who ran the dishwasher in the middle of the night. I also use rinse water for veggies and such to water patio plants.
Great tips. I already do every single one.
Thanks for the info.
I love using reusable shopping bags. My favorite to take with me are produce bags. I love that they have mesh netting
we don’t have a dishwasher so I hand wash but I do conserve water. we use reusable tote bags, paper bags for leaves & we compost our organic gardens
We are saving money by changing out all our old bulbs for the LED ones…. We also call out an expert to give us advice on where we are losing energy and they show you all your problems.
I usually take my own shopping bags but to be honest it is hard for larger families to do this who don’t have time to shop that often!
These are some great tips!