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Health & Fitness

What Can Be Done About High Electric Bills

A Description on home electricity leaks

While I think everyone is aware of CFL bulbs and energy star appliances and their savings potential, what I want to discuss is phantom loads and homeowners energy habits. 

When I talk about phantom loads I am talking about all the things that are draining energy in your home, even when in your mind “everything” is turned off. 

What are these phantom loads? 

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The more obvious ones are things like your clocks, both in your bedroom and the ones on the microwave and oven. I am not proposing that you unplug these items but perhaps you have an extra clock in a guest room, you might consider unplugging it until you have guests. 

Other things that drain power are DVDs, VCRs, printers and chargers that typically remain plugged in and have a little light that is always on. It may not seem like much but that energy adds up. 

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Lastly are the true phantoms. 

Coffee makers, blenders and other appliances that don’t even have lights but are always plugged in. Just the fact that these items are plugged in will cause a certain amount of power to drain out. 

Now, I am not suggesting that you unplug everything in your home all the time, but I am suggesting that you make a point of unplugging some of the easy ones or the items that are not often used. You might even consider getting a power strip or surge protector that you could use to unplug many items at once.

While all of these little items will add up, the one thing that can change your electric bill dramatically is to change your usage habits. You have probably heard that it is not worth turning the lights off if you are only going to be out of a room for a few minutes because it takes more power to turn the lights on than to leave them on. While it is true that there is a power surge when you turn lights on, the break-even point is at about 2 seconds.  Any longer than that and you should turn the lights out.

A big power eater that many of us can change is leaving the game console and TV on while the kids go off to do something else. 

If you have been diligent in changing your habits and still have high bills it may be time to bring in a professional who has the tools and the knowledge to assess your situation and find where you are wasting that electricity.  

It may seem as though there is a lot of effort involved for a little return, and I will admit that I don’t always practice what I preach but I will leave you with a case study that may get you motivated. 

I had a homeowner call me who had much higher electric bills than their neighbors who had similar sized houses. They were paying between $250 and $300 per month. They had ComEd out to look at their problem, as well as a friend who was an engineer at Fermi Lab. 

The response they received from everyone was that there was a motor somewhere in the house that was just running all of the time, but nobody could locate this phantom motor.  The homeowners called me in and upon arrival my first impression was “this house sure is bright.”  I did not want to jump to conclusions, so we looked around the home for a cause for this load.

We isolated circuits to determine what part of the house was using the most energy but we could not come up with anything. 

In the end, after all of our testing and a discussion with the homeowners the culprit was clear. 

The homeowner liked her lights. 

She would start the day by turning on lights all over the house and they would stay on all day.  

My suggestion to this family was to try being a little more frugal in the light usage and the game console. I received a call from the homeowner a month or so later and they had followed my suggestion and their new electric bill was $125.  I am not suggesting that everyone will see these results but you can save a substantial amount just by being conscious of your energy usage.

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