3/26/2008

how to reduce your electric bill to practically nothing

My last electric bill, for a period of 2 months, was 95 shekels. That's right, 95 shekels. For those of you not familiar with this wonderful Israeli currency, that's about 27 US dollars. Or, 13 dollars a month. To be fair, I do live in a small apartment and we are only a 2 person household, but it was still the lowest electric bill we've ever had and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment (plus some extra money in my pocket).

If you want to save electricity too, here are some of my electricity saving tips:

Change your incandescent lightbulbs to CFLs. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (which now come in a soft yellow color that's very similar to incandescents) generally use about 20% of the electricity used to power a regular incandescent lightbulb. Even if you only change the lightbulbs that you use most often, you'll still save electricity.

Unplug
your electronic appliances and devices when not in use. I didn't know this until fairly recently, but electronic plugs (such as cell phone chargers, laptop chargers, etc.) still use a significant amount of electricity when they're just plugged into the wall. As soon as you're done charging something, unplug it from the outlet - you'll see the difference in your electric bill. Devices that are kept on standby or devices that have a built-in clock that's on all the time are also sucking up electricity all the time. I no longer keep my cable box plugged in or my TV on standby for that reason.

Take shorter showers. Not only does this save water, but shorter showers = less time and energy needed to heat the water. It takes a lot of energy to heat up water.

Turn off the stove burner a minute or two before you think the dish is done. The residual heat will finish cooking the dish and you'll save electricity.

Find other ways to heat/cool yourself, other than the air conditioner. Israeli winters are pretty mild, so I was able to save a lot of electricity by bundling up in my apartment rather than turn the air conditioner on. Now that it's warming up, I'm going to use fans (and popsicles) to cool myself down as much as possible.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog made me realize how connected we are globally. The steps you are taking to reduce energy are the same ones we are taking in the US. The only thing that separates human beings is physical distance.

Thanks!
Dagny McKinley
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel

Anonymous said...

i recently got my electric bill for 2600 shekels, and I wasnt even here for the past month (april), every appliance was unplugged. How is this possible?

karen said...

Hmm... that sounds a little weird. Did you have large appliances plugged in during that month, such as extra freezers, dehumidifiers, generators? Also, water heaters use up a ton of electricity - did you have any water heaters on for long periods of time?

Anonymous said...

Amazing tips - thank you. 95 shekels - you are a champion! You should start a contest - who can get the lowest electricity bill. My lowest was 200 shekels. Where can I buy the bulbs you described - do they look different than regular ones?

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Anonymous said...

What do I do about washing machines... I have a 7kg one and I fill it up and put it on 30. It is the one thing I haven't figured out how to save electricity on yet.

lior frenkel said...

I take cold showers!
It means less electricity, and immunity for flu :)
(I do fight with my girlfriend when she doesn't have her hot water though)
:)

Lior frenkel
make a small step with reusable shopping bags ...

Anonymous said...

I have been looking EVERYWHERE to see where/how those CFL bulbs can be recycled, there is absolutely no information out there which is worrying considering the highly toxic nature of these bulbs. Does this mean that people are just throwing them in the garbage?!?

Please feel free to send any advice to ammoria@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Viagra said...

Those are great tips! I will definitely implement these in my household!

Elliott Broidy said...

Nicely done