As most of America is well aware of, we went into Daylight Savings Time (DST) this past weekend–you know, when we set the clocks to one hour later and “spring ahead.” I don’t know about you but I’ve been feeling a little jet lag today, like I’d traveled across a time zone without actually going anywhere. Well, I guess in reality, I did.
This jet lag effect was the most apparent this afternoon. Normally, around 3:00 I’ll start to feel a bit drowsy, and I’ll usually brew a second cup of coffee to perk me up and help me make it through the rest of the workday. Today, sure I felt drowsy at mid-afternoon, but when I glanced at the clock on my laptop, guess what? It was 4:00. Well, that took me by surprise. I had no idea it was that late in the afternoon, and, in my mind, it was just too late for another cup of coffee (that is, if I wanted to sleep tonight). Besides, I would be eating dinner in less than two hours. So I grabbed some water instead, which was probably better for me in the long run.
You know what else surprised me? Reading about this study in Fast Company that showed that DST increased energy usage. The notion behind setting the clock ahead an hour is to give us more light in the afternoon–originally so that farmers could work longer in the day. People once thought that this change would also save energy, because we wouldn’t have to turn on our lights until later in the evening. But these days it seems that with office buildings that have lights on no matter the hour of the day, switching to DST does nothing to save energy. But if switching the clocks really isn’t helping on the energy front, why bother changing the time twice a year?
Well, since I’m not going to go lobby Congress to make this change, I figured I’d at least help you avoid becoming an energy-sucking statistic by offering this simple reminder of the 7 ways you can save energy at home.
- Turn lights off when you leave a room.
- Wash clothes in cold water only so you’re not using energy to heat hot water.
- Plug all electronics into surge protectors and then shut them off at night when not in use.
- If you have a laptop, charge it once during the day, pull out the plug (from both ends) and run on battery power for as long as you can.
- Clean the coils behind your refrigerator to make sure that it’s running as efficiently as possible.
- Keep the heat or air conditioning off for as long as you can stand it on cold or hot days.
- Replace your old incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
Even though these tips are basic, they really do work. How else can you explain the fact that our electricity bills plummeted when we moved from a new, energy-efficient home to an older, less energy-efficient house? Well, we started putting these small changes into practice, and all together, they added up to big savings.
What are some of the ways you save energy around the house, regardless of what “time” you’re in?
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
Great list!
I do the following:
*unplug cell phone chargers
*use a hand-held fan (a la Southern belles and tropical folk the world over) when it’s warm but I just need fresh air, not A/C
*use an electric fan to cool a space I’m in (or at least make it feel cooler because of the air moving) instead of turning on the A/C
*use a space heater in the room I’m in rather than turn on the heater for the whole house
*use programmable thermostats for larger areas/whole house heating & cooling
*use windows upstairs and downstairs to create a heat tunnel effect to suck dry (hot) air out and cooler air in
*use blinds/curtains for passive solar (blocking hot sun out, allowing winter sun in, adjusting blinds as the sun shifts throughout the day)
*try to bake several items at once/in a row to use the heat as much as possible, rather than only baking one thing and letting the oven cool, then reheating it another day
*microwave small containers of food rather than heating up the oven or stove top for a “too small” portion that will waste more heat than it will use to cook in a small pot.
You’ve got a great list, too! I love the one about baking. We do that in the winter, too. Keeps the kitchen and dining room nice and toasty without turning up the heat. Thanks for posting a comment.
Leah
For points 4 and 5, unplugging in the preference but not always possible or feasible. In these cases, I suggest looking at a smart power strip which can do the more difficult work for you. Take your TV, DVD, DVR, you can shut down the TC and the other appliances follow. Not perfect by no means, but best bet until the design issues (standby power) are sorted out.