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Painter Mommy

Fun stuff in the Everyday Life of a Busy Mom & Entrepreneur

How I SAVE on my Electric Bill

May 22, 2010 by Painter Mommy 9 Comments

This is the first time my husband and I have ever had to deal with an actual utility bill.  Crazy right?  Well, all of our previous places to live always had all the utilities included.  This was a definite blessing.  But before all the flooding chaos began, I actually started to be more frugal and considerate of how much electric I was using.  Looking back on it now, I realize that this was just preparation for where we are now.

I honestly had no idea how much electric could be per month.  Our current landlord said that it could run us up to $250 per month, especially in the winter months.  And yes, we DO have the dreaded “electric baseboard heat”.

When I signed up with the electric company I inquired about getting on a payment plan where we would pay the same amount each month so that we would not get bombarded in the winter time with a huge expense.  But because we are NEW tenants, we did not have anything for them to average.  So, what they did was take the last 3 month average of the previous tenants and gave us our monthly rate.

Well, I was so concerned that the rate they gave us would probably increase by double after OUR 3 month average just because we are a family of 6 as opposed to 2. I was dreading finding out after the first 30 days of us living in our new home what the “REAL” price would be.

When I spoke with the electric company, I asked them if they had any information on how to save on my electric bill.  They said they would send me a pamphlet in the mail.  I knew a few things just from visiting my mom at her home.  She is extremely frugal when it comes to things like that, which is definitely a good thing in this day and age when so many are facing hard times financially.

Anyway, I got the pamphlet in the mail and it had a lot of great tips – some that I had already been doing in our previous home and a few new ones that I began to utilize immediately after reading.

Here is the list of tips from www.NYSEG.com on how to save on your electric bill.  My FAVORITES are in green.  They are the ones I have been utilizing the most.

Heating Your Living Areas

  • Set your thermostat at 65° during the day to reduce your heating use by as much as 15%.
  • Lower your thermostat at night either manually or automatically with a setback thermostat.
  • Weatherstrip windows near your thermostat and keep them tightly closed. A cold draft across the thermostat will turn your heating system on unnecessarily.
  • Keep heating supply and return registers and radiators clean and unobstructed by furniture and draperies.
  • Close all heat registers in unused rooms. (CAUTION: To protect pipes in these rooms, make sure the temperature stays above freezing.)
  • Close the fireplace damper when not in use.
  • To keep air from leaking under a door, roll up a small rug and place it across the bottom of the doorway.
  • Open draperies on south-facing windows during the day to let in free heat from the sun and close them at night or on cloudy days to keep the heat in.

Cooling Your Living Areas

  • Set your air conditioning thermostat at 78° or higher during the cooling season. Each degree above 75° saves you 3% of the energy used to cool your home.
  • When using air conditioning, only cool the rooms you need. Close doors to other rooms.
  • Turn your air conditioner off when you leave home.
  • Help keep your home and yourself cool by using natural ventilation and wearing
    light clothing.
  • Close your draperies and shades on hot, sunny days to reduce solar heat build-up.
  • Close windows and doors during the hottest parts of the day.

Lights and Appliances

  • Turn off unused lights, stereos, televisions, computers, etc.
  • During the day, use as few lights as necessary. Let daylight do the work.
  • Keep light bulbs and shades dust-free. Dust absorbs light.
  • Use three-way bulbs where possible and choose the wattage or amount of light
    for your needs.
  • Use a concentrated light for tasks like reading, sewing or cooking.
  • Use fluorescent, rather than incandescent, fixtures and bulbs where possible. Fluorescent lights are three to four times more energy efficient.
  • Consider energy efficiency by painting walls and ceilings light colors. Light colors reflect rather than absorb light, thus reducing the need for extra lighting.
  • With incandescent lighting, use one high-wattage bulb rather than several low-wattage bulbs. Replace on-off switches with solid-state dimmer switches to better control lighting and efficiency.

Refrigerator

  • Put your refrigerator in a cool spot with good air circulation and away from heat sources like direct sunlight, your kitchen range and heat vents.
  • Open and close the refrigerator door quickly and infrequently.
  • Carefully select a refrigerator/freezer with energy-saving features. Units with the ENERGY STAR label are among the most efficient. Be aware that manual-defrost freezers use up to 30% less energy than units that defrost automatically.
  • Avoid putting hot foods in the refrigerator.
  • Clean your refrigerator’s condenser coils regularly.
  • Use your refrigerator optimally. A full but not tightly-packed refrigerator is most efficient.
  • Inspect the seals on your refrigerator, freezer and oven doors to ensure that they fit tightly. Simply place a lighted flashlight inside the appliance. If you see light around the gasket after the door is closed, replace the gasket.

Stove

  • When cooking small meals, use only small electric appliances.
  • When necessary, pre-heat your oven for no more than 10 minutes.
  • Resist peeking into the oven. Every time you open the door, you lose heat.
  • Use flat-bottomed pans with covers and match the size of the pots and pans to the size of your burners. Also, minimize the amount of water in pans and use the lowest heat setting needed.

Sink / Dishwasher

  • Use the dishwasher only when full. In addition, let clean dishes air dry.
  • Install a flow restrictor in the kitchen sink faucet to reduce the use of hot water.

Bath

  • Take showers rather than baths. A typical shower requires only half as much hot water as an average bath.
  • Use your bath and kitchen exhaust fans sparingly. In just one hour they can remove a houseful of warmed or cooled air.
  • Repair all leaky faucets. One drop per second can waste as much as 10 gallons of water in a week. If the water is hot, you lose not only the water but also the energy used to heat the water.
  • Install water flow restrictors on your shower heads and faucets to reduce your water use.

The Laundry

  • Wash clothes in hot water only when necessary. Always use cold water for rinsing.
  • Operate washers and dryers with full loads to make best use of warm water or warm air.
  • Clean the lint screen on your dryer after each use to keep it running efficiently. Also check the dryer exhaust periodically to be sure it is not blocked.
  • Don’t overdry clothes in the dryer.
  • Hang your laundry outdoors to dry. The fewer times you use your clothes dryer, the less energy you’ll use.
  • Turn your iron off a few minutes before you’re finished ironing. Residual heat will finish the job.

Did you learn anything new from this list?  I know I did! But the most important thing I do to save on electricity is to use my washer and dryer and dishwasher during what is called “night hours”.  I learned that night kilowatt hours can be much less than day kilowatt hours.  I was told by my electric company that there is a 3 cent difference.  So, currently the day hours are around 10 cents here in my location and the night hours are 7 cents.  The night hours are from midnight to 8am.  Well, there is no way I am going to be able to stay up to do laundry after midnight.  LOL  I am zonked by 9pm.  LOL  But having 4 little ones, I do get up very early.

So, I now have a morning routine of throwing in a load of laundry and turning on the dishwasher as soon as I get up.  I can get 2 loads of laundry washed and dried between 6am and 8am.  This, to me, is great and it feels great to have these large tasks completed before the day has even begun.

Another thing that I have been doing is trying to unplug appliances that are not being used.  I have always been one to leave my cell phone plugged in overnight- but my wonderful and all knowing mom (thanks mom!), has taught me that this not only wastes energy, but also destroys the phone battery sooner.

I hope that this has helped someone out there to realize that it is possible to save money on your electric bill.  These things really do work!  After 30 days of living in our new place, I made the dreaded call to my electric company and read them the current meter reading so I could find out how much we spent.  I SWORE that they would say we had gone WAY over their original monthly quote according to the previous tenants average.  And remember there were only TWO people living here and now there are SIX.  Well, they put me on hold to do some figuring and when they came back and told me the price – it was UNDER what we were assigned to pay.  What???  I couldn’t believe it!

So, now I am totally obsessed with doing what I can to save energy in our home.  Yes, I still forget sometimes and leave lights on or forget to turn down the heat at night – but I am really trying.  🙂

Here are a couple funny cartoons I found on the subject:

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How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

August 4, 2009 by Painter Mommy 7 Comments

During the summer is when my family eats the most fresh fruit and vegetables. Since it is not good to keep fruit in the fridge, we have one of those 2 tiered hanging baskets where we keep the fruit.  It usually gets eaten pretty quick though.

fly

It has always baffled me how we could bring fruit home from the store and then the very next day I find a fruit fly flying around all the fruit. The fruit was completely clean when we brought it home.  Our home is clean… so where they heck did this little annoying bug come from?

I did some research online, because as most of you know – I am a sucker for information, and I found some great sites that go into depth about the origin of the fruit fly.  I found this bit of info on www.straightdope.com:

fruit_fly_research03_6801“Fruit flies – at least those most familiar to us (Drosophila) – wait to lay their eggs, seeking out fruit that has begun to ferment. The fruit fly’s whole sensory apparatus is devoted to sniffing out the distinctive odors of fermentation – that’s why you frequently find fruit flies hanging around beer bottles. They generally don’t lay their eggs on fresh fruit, though. The larvae feed mostly on yeast, and until a fruit has started to go beyond ripe, there just isn’t enough yeast there. The eggs hatch quickly and the larvae develop quickly to make the most of the little time available; a rotting fruit doesn’t last very long. If a fruit has started to ferment while in transit or in the market, then it might possibly arrive in your home with eggs or larvae already in it. But if it ripens in your home and then the fruit flies appear, they’re new arrivals.”

I guess there must’ve been a piece of fruit that had started to ferment and I didn’t realize it so then the fruit fly was born – ugh! Now, I am wondering if they are multiplying somewhere and going to take over my house!  BIG UGH!

I did read some more and found some info on how to prevent from getting fruit flies.  There is a whole list of things, but I will only list a few so you can at least get an idea.  Check out the site to read more – www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Fruit-Flies

  • Wash all dishes. Clear the drains
  • Launder the dishrags / sponges (or at least wash them thoroughly with soap, rinse them well and wring them dry before hanging them up – don’t leave them in the sink)
  • Store trash in a covered bin
  • Get rid of flowers in the area. All they really need is sugar, and nectar can provide a source
  • Do not toss food garbage into waste-paper baskets
  • Cover your fruit bowl or store fruit you wish to keep in the refrigerator. Also, raisins, dates and prunes are favorite attractants
  • Discard all overripe fruit
  • Clean opened containers of fruit juice, fermented or vinegar products, for example ketchup, siracha or cooking wine. Seal them well. Keep these in the refrigerator if possible
  • Wipe up crumbs and spills from your cabinets, counter and floor
  • Take out all trash
  • They love rotten bananas – get rid of those

Now for the really cool part!  How do you get rid of fruit flies?  Well, here is a really cool video with a great tip on how to easily get rid of fruit flies before they take over!  If you are reading this post from Facebook or are an email subscriber, you will need to click on the title of this post to go to my website and the video will be there to watch.

So, what did you think?  Pretty cool right?  I am soooo doing this tonight!

Do any of you battle with the occasional fruit fly?  How do you handle it?  Do you want to join me and take the GET RID OF FRUIT FLIES ONCE AND FOR ALL CHALLENGE?

CommentBlinkie

How to Keep Winter Gloves Organized

January 1, 2009 by Painter Mommy 14 Comments

I cannot take credit for this awesome Organizational Tip.? My mom was the one who shared this with me a couple years ago.? She is my mentor and also an organizational genius!

I have always dreaded Winter with small children.? It is so difficult having to bundle them up with coats, hats, scarves, and mittens.? And then once you get to your destination the kids take them off and they get thrown somewhere and many times lost – never to be found again (especially the gloves). I kinda wish they made them on strings like how they do for babies.

Anyway, once we get home after an outing, the hats, gloves and scarves get thrown all over the place.?? I used to have a big basket that I would put everything in.? But eventually when it was time to go out again, there would always be a glove missing.? I would go crazy trying to find it and then finally give up and let the kids go out without any gloves at all.? (I know…bad mommy I am…)

So, when my mom shared this idea with me, I was thrilled!

Has anyone ever seen these plastic chains with clips on them that you can get from the Dollar Store?

Well this was my answer to keeping our winter gloves organized in their matching pairs!? Here is a picture of our gloves hanging in our entryway.? I have three separate chains hanging on hooks that are attached to a mirror I have hanging on my wall.

As you can see each pair of gloves has its own clip.? When we come in the house I get the gloves hung up right away so they are always neat and organized.

What do you think of this idea?? I love it!!

photo credit: Winstonavich

Is it Possible to Keep all the Toys Organized?

December 26, 2008 by Painter Mommy 3 Comments

I was inspired today by a post that I read on www.pinklikethecolor.org written by Laura (@MomPink).? She was asking for organizing tips for her home, one being how to organize all the toys after Christmas.

I can definitely relate with this issue.? I WISH we had a separate playroom for all the kid’s toys, but unfortunately we have to use part of our living room as a playroom.? So, I have had to get pretty creative when it comes to keeping things organized.? And with three small children the abundance of toys is endless.

In response to Laura’s request for ideas, I would like to answer her by sharing how I have used plastic bins as a means to keep everything in order within my home.

I bought around 20 plastic storage bins from the Dollar Store and I use them to keep each toy category in one place.? The trucks go in the truck bin.? The trains go in the train bin.?? The small stuffed animals go in one bin – and so on.? And at Christmas, I go through the toys and get rid of the ones the kids don’t use to make room for the new ones.

TIP – Sometimes, I just put the toys away in a closet and pull them out several weeks later after the kids forget about them.? When I pull them out, the kids get excited all over again as if they were new.

Here are a few pictures of my “playroom corner” in the living room. (Don’t mind the UGLY mauve carpet)? LOL

It may look a bit busy to you, but it functions beautifully.? I only allow my children to take one thing out at a time (sometimes 2 or 3 depending on what it is) and when they are done with whatever they are playing with – I have them put it away and then they can take something else out.? Everything has a place.? My kids know exactly where each thing goes and when I ask them to clean up – they (usually) put the toys back in the right spots.

The bins are very helpful with this.? I use both the stackable storage bins, which I had gotten from a local pharmacy store called CVS.? That was a couple years ago and I have not been able to find them since.? So if anyone happens to see these anywhere, please let me know!

I also use the dollar store bins to keep the smaller items in.? This way the kids can take the bin and bring it onto the floor to play with whatever is in it.? It also makes it easier to clean up.

I would love to hear your tips and ideas as well.? Be sure to comment!

Organizing Your Home: Decluttering Solutions and Storage Idea

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