Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor
A milestone in the lives of many students comes after living on your own for the first full month- receiving and paying your very first electric bill. Typically, that one is easy enough to pay. But suddenly, you find yourself in the winter months. The heat is coming on more frequently, the lights are coming on earlier and staying on longer, and your bill is increasing dramatically.
Luckily for you, there are ways to save other than opting for keeping the heat off and freezing. Little tricks can keep you from paying an arm and a leg each month, and you’ll still be able to live happily in your home — just with a smaller bill.
The first spot to look into is your dishwasher, if you have one. Think about how you load your washer before running it. If you find yourself having to rewash things, you’re likely loading your washer too full. Or, if you find yourself running the dishwasher constantly because the loads are too small, you’ll also run into problems. Running your dishwasher repeatedly can get expensive, so save yourself the trouble and do it efficiently. Load your dishes in correctly, wash it all once it’s full enough to run, but not too full, and do it less frequently. Or, you can even opt to just washing things by hand if you only have a few dishes.
In response to ways she chooses to save, sophomore Maria Krueger commented that “little things help. Just keeping appliances off, turning off the lights and heat before I leave. Things like that.”
According to lifehacker.com, “appliances and electronics account for about 17 percent of energy use in the average American household.” However, they also mention that some appliances do use more energy, such as gaming systems, electric kettles, desktop computers and television sets. While remembering to constantly turn off and unplug everything can get annoying, you can easily fix this by using power strips. Then, instead of having to turn off every device everyday, you can just turn off the power strip when you don’t need it on.
Do you have a washer and dryer in your home? Using the dryer will crank up your bill an incredible amount. If you can, air drying is the way to go. However, this isn’t always easy to do. So if you want to keep using your washer/dryer, measure your loads well. Similar to the dishwasher, doing too many loads or doing ones that are simply too large will just end up getting expensive. So save yourself the time and money, and measure how you wash your clothes efficiently.
While these tips may seem small, I’ve managed to use many of them to save me a ton each month. The biggest thing to remember is to be aware of the energy you are using. Keep the lights off when you don’t need them, use blankets before you crank up the heat, turn off appliances you aren’t using. Make some small changes in your daily habits to save yourself the pain of a sky-high bill at the end of the month.
Contact the author at chealy16@mail.wou.edu
Photo by: Paul F. Davis
