Are Your Daily Habits Wasting Energy?by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 12 Feb 2007 08:39 PM This morning as I got ready for a shower, I wasted valuable electricity. How did I do this? By automatically turning on the bathroom lights when the room was already lit quite well. Early morning sunlight was streaming in, even through the closed blinds, and there was no need for additional light. But I was in the habit of turning on lights when I entered the bathroom. It was purely automatic. When I realized what I had done, and had been doing for quite a while, I immediately shut off the lights. But, it started making me think about all of the ways that normal daily habits around the house could be wasting energy, and therefore money. Our electric bill has been steadily increasing over the last year, despite our efforts to continue to be frugal and conserve energy. While we were trying to figure out the secrets of our bill increase, my husband had one of those light bulb moments. It seems that we really were spending more electricity. We had gotten into the habit of staying up later and getting up earlier than normal, just to get more work done. That means that some lights would sometimes be on until three in the morning while my husband worked, then off for perhaps two hours before I got up early at five in the morning to get my work done. We were literally burning the midnight oil. Of course out electric bill was going up. There are other reasons we needed to break this habit, naturally, such as getting a healthy amount of sleep, and getting to spend time with each other. But sometimes it takes something more tangible, such as that bill, to make you see the light (ha ha). Some habits could be changed with a little forethought. One habit that I am trying to break is defrosting meat in the microwave for dinner. Just taking my chicken out and placing it in the fridge the night before would eliminate that bit of energy usage. Hanging laundry or taking it out of the dryer while damp and then hanging it would eliminate the need for the energy hogging iron. Are you in the habit of taking the whole vacuum out to pick up a few crumbs? It is an easy habit to get into when you have those little crumb manufacturing plants, otherwise known as kids. Try using a broom and dustpan. They don't require any energy but your own. Do you have any energy wasting habits? Related Articles: Conservation Equals Frugality: A Review of Articles Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments  Julie Gentry (5915) 12 Feb 2007 07:45 PMWe figured out that leaving our computers on at night was costing more than a quarter per night. While there is some added "wear and tear" even with shutting them down properly, it's not $100/year's worth.  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 12 Feb 2007 08:29 PMJulie, Thanks for the tip. We usually do leave our computers on at night, but I never realized how much it added up to! jonesx6 (1606) 17 Feb 2007 06:35 AMMy children always turn the light on in the bathroom, no matter what time it is. This drives me crazy b/c our bathroom gets plenty of sun. In fact if I am in the shower and they need to use the potty they turn on the light and ask me if I like taking a shower in the dark. I tell them to turn it off b/c it isn't dark in the bathroom. lol I like turning off the computer. We leave both of our computers on all the time. I guess I should try turning them off at night. Laura Mary Ann Romans (26876) 17 Feb 2007 09:57 AMLaura, you could always replace your bathroom bulbs with dead ones and see if they notice a difference! Community Tags electricity, energy, save Discuss this article
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