Comments on: Turn out (or replace?) that light!

By: Moxie

Moxie — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:07:29 +0000

Iâ��m glad you did the number-crunching on this! I try not to be wasteful on principle, but Iâ��m glad I donâ��t have to be absolutely wracked with financial guilt if I do on occasion accidentally leave a light on overnight or while Iâ��m in the other room. Good post!

By: Moxie

Moxie — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:00:39 +0000

I’m glad you did the number-crunching on this! I try not to be wasteful on principle, but I’m I don’t have to be absolutely wracked with financial guilt if I do on occasion accidentally leave a light on overnight or while I’m in the other room. Good post!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:13:29 +0000

Here is Springfield, MO we can pay an extra $5 per 100 kilowatt-hours and they will buy that much energy from a wind farm in Kansas. It is a pretty good deal all around because most of the electricity here comes from coal fired plants. Our basic rate is $0.0291 per kWh. With the extra charge for wind energy the four 26 Watt bulbs in my workspace would cost $1.92 to run continuously for an entire month. I only actually run them for a few hours a day, so they actually cost almost nothing. I’m glad I finally did the math on this. My wife always hassles me about leaving these lights on. Her aquarium pump and filter probably cost more to run. I can’t wait to walk away with the lights on now.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:56:50 +0000

@jeff.. i wholeheartedly agree with you.. the only issue i have is getting the rest of the family to comply..

THAT is a hard trick..

By: admin

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:56:09 +0000

@nate – this sounds like a good idea.. right now, i am at a point where my spending is in a holding pattern.. but i looked at that one, and it looks just as usable..

the only thing i would like to be able to do is hook it up to my dryer, as that is the beast that i would bet uses alot of juice.. it’s an electric model..

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:33:28 +0000

You can get a Kill A Watt from Amazon.com for under $24 shipped. I wouldn’t splurge for the Kill A Watt EZ unless you have frequent power outages. All it does is multiply to get cost (which you clearly can do) and save cumulative usage across power failures.

If you haven’t, check out “Mr Electricity’s” website (my name links). Don’t be turned off by the ‘old school’ web design, it’s the best site I’ve come across for energy savings. He focuses on the big stuff first, and dispels a lot of common myths.

By: jeff n

jeff n — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:43:20 +0000

a good exercise.

it’s not about money,
-it’s about the grid’s capacity. and
-it’s about the lifespan of those lights that you’ll be trashing so much more frequently

By: Meg from FruWiki

Meg from FruWiki — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:34:05 +0000

Yeah, it is tough when you have others in the house. My husband and I don’t have kids, but we’ve had roommates — at one time 3 extra people, plus a boyfriend who might as well have been a roommate. And of course, we were dummies enough to not charge for utilities. It was tough because we didn’t want to seem like control freaks — which we were accused of by at least one roommate. However, considering the person who said it and how “out of control” of her life she is/was, I’ll take that as a compliment. I just wish her parents had taught her to act like a mature adult instead of pampering and enabling her. Being less wasteful is a good habit to learn early on.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:08:47 +0000

@meg – i would guess that this is a good time to mention one of the main reasons i wrote this blog.. we are a family of four. for me, it’s simple to see the benefits of frugality, even if things were free.. but in order for them to stick with the rest of the people in our houses, we have to make them as painless as possible.

otherwise, the natives will revolt..

it seems like teaching people to turn lights off is near impossible.. and i am sure that if my family ever sees these numbers, they will definitely side against me on the issue..

i would love to see a $40 electric bill!

i am going to check now how much the dryer uses.. i will have to estimate the electricity usage based on the wattage rating, but i should be in the ballpark..

thanks!

By: Meg from FruWiki

Meg from FruWiki — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:03:03 +0000

I agree that it’s appliances that cost you, not so much the light bulbs. Still, why use more electricity than you need, especially if you’re paying for it? It’s not like it costs you anything to get up and turn the light off — except maybe a few calories which most of us could stand to lose. My husband and I try to avoid using lights inside as much as we can and use a single bulb lamp in the evenings instead of the three bulb overheads whenever possible. Even if electricity were free, we’d still do that just to reduce waste — which is the heart of frugality and being green-minded.

Also, being mindful about the lights really made us more mindful about other things like unplugging appliances. I’m sure getting rid of our t.v. altogether really helped our electric bill, as well as hang drying my clothes (though my husband still uses the dryer). We actually got our electric bill down to $40 this spring (used to be hundreds!), but it jumped over $100 extra in June because of the heat here in Florida — and it’s unseasonably warm even for here. We try to keep it around 80-82 during the day, but it still uses a lot of electricity. Our AC should probably be replaced, but it’s still hard to justify the cost right now. And also on that list is our ancient, un-adjustable electric water heater — which we hope to replace with an instant gas water heater some day.