Small things add up
Today is almost 90 degrees where I live and it’s reminding me that soon many people will be running their ACs all day, using up a lot of energy. Here are some ways you can use less yourself:
- Do back to back loads of laundry. You’ll use less energy drying the clothes as the heat from one cycle can be used for the next.
- Try running your dishwasher on the light cycle. If it cleans your dishes fine, use that regularly. And always turn off the heated dry.
- If it’s cool at night, open your windows instead of running your AC. You can even place a small fan in front of the window to suck in more air. You’ll get fresh air and free cooling of your house. Close the windows first thing in the morning and chances are, you won’t need to turn on your AC until afternoon.
- Use the microwave when possible. It’s much more energy efficient than a cooktop. And if you have a toaster oven, use that in place of your oven when possible.
- Run the dishwasher and do laundry at night or first thing in the morning, not during peak energy use hours (especially important on hot days when everyone is running AC). Power plants have to be able to handle the max energy used, so not taxing the grid means less need for more power plants to be built.
Filed under: Environment on May 18th, 2009
Great tips.
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Since water is a concern in SoCal, where we live, I wash dishes in the sink, with a sink-ful of soapy water, and air dry them on the drying rack (saving my own energy by not towel-drying them
And, try line-drying your clothes! Especially when it’s super hot – I find my clothes are ready to come in very quickly when it’s hot out. You can pick up a drying rack inexpensively to try it out, or if you have a small space.