Fan Mail & Success Stories about Saving Electricity

We would like to thank you for all the great information that you have provided on your web pages. We found it to be very useful in helping us save electricity.

We wanted to share what we have done to save electricity at our house and how we did it. Our electrical consumption four years ago was an average of a 65 KWH's a day, today it's 26 KWH's a day.  

Going from 65KWH per day to 26 KWH days has saved us about $1,047 a year on our electric bill. We pay 7.36 cents per KWH. We read a while back on your web site that you are down to using only 5 KWH's or per day. Very impressive. We hope to get down around to18 to 20 KWH's per day when it's all said and done.

We changed all of our lights in the house and the shop and garage to fluorescent screw in light bulbs. We installed rotary timers on the shop and garage; we also changed the yard lights to the 23 watt screw in fluorescent bulbs which are on motion detectors and they only come on at night, we then tucked the fluorescent lights and fixtures up under cover. The fluorescent lights have been out side for over 2 years now we have only lost one bulb.

We noticed, most people almost always wash their hands in cold water but draw water from the hot water faucet. Most of us are not patient enough for the hot water to get there. We felt this was a terrible waste of hot water. We now turn the cold water faucet on instead of the hot. It took about two weeks for us to adap. We called the health department and asked if it was totally necessary to wash your hands in hot water; they said no that soap and scrubbing is what cleans your hands, hot water is more for creature comfort.

We bought a new coffee maker that uses a stainless steel thermos type carafe -- it brews coffee in 6 minutes and then it turns itself off, unlike our old conventional coffee maker which stayed on for 2 hours reheating over and over and over cooking and ruining the taste of our coffee. Prior to this we would put our coffee in thermoses.

We hooked our two computers and their peripherals (printer, scanner USB hub, speakers etc.) to a switched power strip, which we shut down at night.

About a year ago we bought a new 40 gallon electric water heater which replaced our 52 gallon 1991 water heater. We modified our new water heater so it only heats up the top half of the tank, then hooked up the lower element on a remote rotary 30 minute 20 amp time. We also installed a timer on the incoming power so that it shuts off at night and back on in the morning. Our water heater heats water an average of only 33 minutes out of every 24 hours now. We have two 3800 watt elements in it. Prior to converting our water heater and our ways, our water heater was heating for about 2 hours a day. We installed two 220 to 110 volt converters on the water heater and then we hooked two 12 hour clocks to them to monitor run time

We installed a shut off valve on our showerhead and we also put an aerator in the shower. This has helped us save both water and electricity.

We have a side by side refrigerator/freezer we filled up all the void spots in the freezer with water jugs, we felt once it turned to ice it should help cut down on the cooling cycles. I rented a house that had, had some kind of a hair shedding animal in the house after living there for several months I noticed that the fridge compressor ran a lot, one day it went warm inside the landlord refused to replace the fridge. I decided to see what I could do to get this one working again, I called an appliance repair shop and asked for suggestions. They were very helpful and one of their suggestions was to check the coils. I found the coils on the bottom I saw that they had dust and animal hair around them. I decided to tip the fridge over and clean the coils. They were totally full of hair and dust. I vacuumed the coils clean I set the fridge back up and let it sit for a day the next day. I plugged it back in and crossed my fingers. I lived there for 2 years and the fridge did great after cleaning the coils. The compressor didn't cycle nearly as much as it did before. I wonder how many refrigerators have been replaced over this simple problem.

We live within the city limits so we are provided with water and sewer which was costing us about $90 a month. We found out that our sewer bill was regulated by our water usage so the more water we used the higher our sewer bill . What we realized was our toilets were our biggest water user. My wife and I disused it and decided that when we went #1 that we would not flush the toilets and when we went #2 we would. We started this about 9 months ago and our water/sewer bill went in half. We now pay the minimum of $42 a month. We figure this helps save electricity twice and saves clean water; it helps cut down on the run time of the water and sewer pumps.

With combined electrical and water/sewer conservation we figure we have saved ourselves about $1,623.00 a yea. We feel the effort is well worth it and we don't feel like we have made any great comfort or time sacrifices.

We also realized that we never felt good about wasting electricity and we sure feel good about saving energy -- the rewards are plentiful. We realized that it is the few that step up to the plate and do something about conserving energy and in doing so, the majority can continue to have energy, so that they can have it to waste.

Thank you again for the wonderful web site

Bob & Debby Groth
Battle Ground, WA
Nov. 2005

Hello! Although you have made it clear that you are not fishing for compliments, I just wanted to say that I found your site extremely useful. In trudging through an assignment from "quantitative aspects to global environmental problem solving" (which is as time consuming as its title), I searched google for some information on energy cost and usage, and the two most relevant pages I found were from your electricity site. So, thank you. I really appreciate it. -- Amber

"An extremely well-written site." -- The Fourth Wave, July 2008

Just wanted to say that you have some really really good information on your website and everything is explained in a simple and understandable manner. For some reason it's hard to get information like that when it comes to electricity.  -- Ceasar Gonzalez, Dec. 2005

Very nice website.  Most informative I have ever seen.  I look forward to utilizing the information to help me save $, especially on heating.  For starters I will try using only a 600W space heater to heat my daughter's bedroom at night so that she can stay toasty warm and my wife and I can suffer a little.  Your website has helped be learn the little cost of that heater versus running the forced air to heat the entire house. Excellent work.  People like you should be given a "tax credit" for providing information like this.  -- Jason Wulf, Livingston, NJ, Nov. 2005

Thanks for providing such excellent information. It has been very helpful to use in deciding whether to add some skylights or more lighting and which kind of lighting. And guess what, every question I had was answered on the website if I just took the time to look. It would have been too easy for me (hard on you) to just ask a question...instead I learned much more having to put some effort into it. Thanks for the great public service.  -- Tom Dowlan, Nov. 2005

We found the information that you have shared to be very useful in helping us save electricity. Our electrical consumption 4 years ago was an average of a 65 KWH's a day, today we are at an average of 26 KWH's a day usage, which saves us about $1,047 a year on our electric bill. We hope to get down around to 18 to 20 KWH's per day when it's all said and done, though that will be a challenge since our house is 100% electric and we heat it with a heat pump. Thank you again for the wonderful web site. -- Bob & Debby Groth, Battle Ground, WA, Nov. 2005

I was troubleshooting a blown fuse in my barn and was able to get the answers I needed from your web site. Thanks!  -- Erin Aronson, Nov. 2005

Just wanted to send a quick thanks for the electricity tips.  I had used over 950 kwh's a few months ago.  Last month I only used 166.  People laugh that I have my TV and accessories plugged into a switch that I always turn off.  That is until I tell them my most recent electricity bill was only $27.  Thanks again.  -- Andrew Williams, Nov. 2005

I just wanted to tell you what a huge help you have been with your website.  I jumped in headfirst and entered myself in a Christmas Parade to promote my Avon business - we have a light requirement of so many lights per square inch - with five days to plan and prepare your site was so helpful and in layman's terms I could understand.  -- Annie Wiley, Nov. 2005

Just a quick note to say thanks for setting up such a great site. I'm doing a final year engineering thesis and your site has been a great help.  -- Katie, Sept. 2005

I really enjoyed your website. It has a lot of information that I could not find on any other one site. Gave me lots of ideas on how to cut back on my electrical consumption. -- Teresa Roper, Aug. 2005

Bravo! I checked into your site for a question about fans... got hooked....and learned so much! I'm a bookkepper- not mechanically inclined.But you present info. with direct explanations. -- Ken, Aug. 2005

Just wanted to pass on some kudos for one of the most informative sites I have ever visited. I work in the conservation/efficiency field for an electric utility in northern Minnesota, and offer energy/saving information to customers on a daily basis. Your site will prove to be a valuable resource. -- Dean Talbot, Minnesota Power, July 2005

I have now switched to the new [compact] fluorescent bulbs, wash dishes only once a day, and am being more energy conscious when I turn on the AC. Your site has been a big help and all of my questions have been answered. AND my electric bill is much lower than this time last year. Now I am busy trying to find other ways to cut back. Here in northern Florida we really deal with the heat so I have been planting more trees to shade the west (hot) side of our older mobile home. I am very grateful for all your tips and info. Thanks! -- Wanda Townsend, May 2005

Your website is awesome! Thanks for helping me determine my energy usage. -- Craig, May 2005

I wanted to write and thank you for your site on "How much electricity does my stuff use"? We recently received a utility bill that was outrageous. We used 3,141 kWh in one month. When I read on your site that an average household uses about 850, I was floored. We soon realized that it was three electric heaters that ran 24 hours a day. That came to a quick halt. Anyway, thank you so much. Since I have been tracking our power usage, our next bill looks to be closer to 1,000 kWh.Thanks again. -- Angel, Mar. 2005
(Yep, three heaters @ 1500W x 24 hours x 30.5 days = 3294 kWh, or $329.40 at 10¢/kWh. The 2000 kWh you're saving will save you around $200/mo. Glad the site gave you the answers you needed!)

I purchased a Kill-A-Watt meter to do some testing a while back after reading your pages. I couldn't believe it when it showed that old fridge in the basement (GE model from the early 80's) was using 6.13 khw per day ! I purchased a new fridge to replace that old GE unit , bought and installed few timers throughout the house and stopped leaving my PC on 24/7. The result is a 20% reduction in kwh usage for a 33 day monthly cycle. I am now down in the low 400's (415 to be exact) for consumption which is the lowest ever since I moved into this house in 1996. My next purchase will be a tankless gas water heater to replace the 33 gallon unit I have now.   -- Neil Sisman, Ontario, Canada, Mar. 2004
(Mr. Sisman wrote us a year later to let us know he was down to the low 300's for monthly kWh usage.)

Just wanted to thank you for the page on Electricity usage.  It helped my roommates and I get an estimate of how much our four computers ate up each month.  Your page settled a huge argument, Thanks.  -- Jared Ott, Mar. 2003

GREAT,GREAT WEB SITE! THANKS! I learned an awful lot. -- Melissa, Appomattox,VA, Feb. 2003

I came across your site when I "asked Jeeves": How much electricity does my computer use? Simple question, right?! Well, 5+ pages later I finally got the answer - on your site!! All your information is very simple and exceptionally useful - my thrifty husband will especially appreciate it! ;) Thanks again for an easy to use, informative site. I will bookmark it! -- Melanie Bell, Dec. 2002