Week 35: Electricity!

Just typing that word makes me think of Schoolhouse Rock.  LOL

With lowering our water consumption last week, working on electricity this week shouldn't be a big shock.  My only issue is that with our water being reasonably cheap, I haven't tried to cut back on it before.  Our electric bill, on the other hand, gets out of control quickly, so I feel like we're making more of an effort there to start with.  I know that there's always room for improvement however, so that's where I'll start.

I have made a tour of the house and unplugged everything that was not of absolute necessity.  That would be the alarm clocks and lamp in our bedroom (the lamp is plugged in behind the bed and really not convenient to manually plug in every time), the phone in the kitchen and computer downstairs.  Then of course are the major appliances, but I don't plan on messing with those.  I unplugged everyone's nightlights and lamps and the can opener.  This raises the question, why do I have a can opener when I don't use canned goods?  And, why does it always need to be plugged in?  Ummm, I don't know and it doesn't.  So, one task for the week will be to remove the can opener from under the counter and Freecycle it.  Maybe it will help someone else out.

A few days ago, the weather cooled off to the point that I could shut off the air conditioning.  Woo-hoo!  I'm hoping to keep it off as long as possible and not turn the furnace on until at least November 1st (it runs on natural gas, but we are billed for both, so keeping both down is a priority).

This week I will be devising ways to keep our bill lower this winter.  This time of year, it is reasonably low, so long as neither the AC nor the furnace are running.  I am doing this now because if there is an upfront investment, I will need to save for it and I want a few weeks to plan what we can do so I don't dump a great big honey-do list in Hubby's lap.  He hates that!  I can do it a little at a time and he won't be quite so annoyed! :)

A little video, because I can't get that song out of my head!