How We Are Trying To Save On Our Electric and Natural Gas Bills

This is the topic that I have decided to do today. Usually I start with food but with heating season upon us I think this is the most important one now.

We have cut many of our electricity costs over the past few years. We have LED bulbs in every socket inside and outside our home. They have come down in price compared to when they first came out so are relatively cheap to purchase. We had CFL’s prior to this and we saved a bit of money by switching to the LED’s.

We purchased a new refrigerator a couple of years back along with a new energy efficient washer and dryer this year. Both of those purchases have helped lower our costs.

But we still have to be cognizant of all the other things that we need to do.

What you are seeing in the picture is the meter that I use to check to see how much energy different things that take electricity cost us in our home. It tells us what we are using and the estimated cost. I haven’t used it in quite a while but I am cooking differently now so I want to check all my kitchen appliances that I am using to see what I am actually using. I only had it plugged into an outlet when I took the picture.

I am making chicken in my Instant Pot for dinner. I will plug the pot cord into the meter and then connect the meter to the outlet and just let it measure while my chicken is cooking. I believe that the instant pot uses less energy than my other small appliances but I want to be sure. So I will cook the same chicken recipe over the next few weeks in my air fryer, crock pot, and toaster oven to find out. After doing a lot of research, I believe the second most energy saving one is the crock pot followed by the air fryer and then the toaster oven. But I want to be sure so I will do this recipe in them all. We will be eating a lot of chicken around here.

I rarely use my oven or range top anymore. I am using the pressure cooker a lot. I also use my small electric fry pan and waffle maker for eggs, bacon, sausage, chaffles, and Keto pancakes.

On the rare occasion that I do use the range top, I try to keep covers on things especially if I am boiling water. I use the lowest heat I can that will cook quickly. I always turn the burner off before things are done by a few minutes and just let the residual heat finish the cooking for me. If I use the oven to bake or roast some meat, I make sure I fill the oven up with lots of dishes so that I have things cooked ahead and don’t waste all of that natural gas cooking just one item. I also turn the oven off 5-10 minutes early and just let things continue to cook. When I take them out of the oven, I leave the oven door all the way open to let all that heat flow out into our kitchen.

When I do the laundry, I use the ECO setting on my washer. I wash and rinse using cold water most of the time. I use laundry detergent when I have really soiled clothes like yesterday when Hubby was getting rid of most of the rest of the leaves that had fallen. He came in and his jacket was a disaster. So it got sprayed with stain remover and washed in warm water and the same on the rinse. Since I had just done the laundry the day before, I had to look for things to wash with it. I had a few clothes and then grabbed the bathroom towels to go in too. I always do full loads.

Now that I have back issues, I use my dryer for everything but my good tops, blouses, and lingerie or anything that is really delicate. Those things all get hung on the guest bathroom shower rod. I use 6 wool balls in my dryer which lets me dry clothes faster and they come out less wrinkled so I don’t have to dry them as long. I also use the EcoDry setting. After I remove the clothes, I leave that door open for just a few minutes to let the heat into the room.

We have a programmable thermostat for our heating. Hubby has it set at 71 from 9am to 10pm. It is set at 64 from 10pm to 7am. Then it goes up to 68 from 7am to 9am. Hubby is always cold so this is how we have to do it. Set yours at what is comfortable for you so that you can save some energy. I run around my house in shorts and a tee all winter, I sweat at 71 especially if I am doing a lot of work. But I can’t have Hubby cold. I think I have an internal furnace so I am always hot. When Hubby went to work during the years our boys were in school, I set the temperature down to 64 when they left and turned it back up to 70 about an hour before Hubby came home. I was quite comfortable at 64 all day.

We keep an electric blanket on our bed so that we are warm while sleeping, Usually I just heat it up until I am warm and then turn it off for the night.

I am going to have to continue this post tomorrow because I am tired and it is time to rest. I have a lot more to say on this topic.