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Old 01-09-2015, 03:48 PM   #16 (permalink)
redpoint5
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Women are a sure way to consume resources...

As Ian pointed out, it's much cheaper to heat with gas, so use that as much as possible. Turn the heat off when nobody is home. I schedule my house to turn the heat off whenever my wife goes to work, and I turn it off whenever we go somewhere.

Aluminum conducts heat extremely well, so don't use a single layer as the only means to insulate.

Get a kill-a-watt meter to see what devices consume the most. I do an energy audit of every device in my house and have a spreadsheet that auto-calculates the monthly and annual cost based on measured power draw and estimated hours of use.

Your phones are probably only consuming a little over 1 watt per device. My farm of 20 was measured at 25 watts, which amounts to about $1.50 in electricity per month. My advice for saving money; get more phones.

Heating the place will be your biggest expense by far, followed by hot water usage and then the cloths dryer. You could turn down the temp on the hot water heater, but you then risk running out. Also, do full loads of laundry only. The fridge and dishwasher are likely next in the list. The rest don't really matter too much. A TV left on 24/7 might cost $6-$12 per month. I run a 35 watt media server 24/7 and it costs about $2/mo.

If you really want to save money, track all of your expenses and get a true idea of where your money goes. You would be surprised how much that coffee you think you only get now and again costs.

You can switch your ISP every year to stay on the promotional rate. My Comcast bill goes from $30 to $70 when the promotional rate expires, and that's when I switch to CenturyLink and get their $30 promotional rate.

... and going full circle in this conversation, get an efficient girlfriend/wife. Mine is almost as frugal and fuel efficient me, plus she is going to be making a lot of money after I put her through post-grad.
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