Energy Saving

I just got an alert that today is a ComEd Peak Time Savings day – that means that since it’s supposed to be in the upper 90s and VERY humid today, ComEd would like us to conserve on electric today to prevent strain on the grid during peak hours.

The first peak alert day this summer, I didn’t really do anything and got a notice that because my electric usage was lower than my neighbors, I’d get a $1.30 back on my next bill for my “savings” during the peak time.  So the next time I got a peak alert, I thought I’d experiment and turn off everything in the house that was’t really necessary and see how much more I could save.  That day I earned a $6.30 credit.  I really didn’t do too much to earn that either – I just pulled all the wall wart plugs and turned the temp on the AC up to 78.  Which has me thinking about what I can do today to save electric again – and how easy it is to trim electric usage and be more environmentally friendly in my own habits.   The $6.30 was a pretty substantial savings for a 1 day change in behavior given that my electric bill was a just little over $60 last month!

So I’m going to pull the plug on on the wall warts again – you know them.  They’re the chargers for our phones, tablets and TVs.  They’re drawing power even if you don’t have something plugged into them.  I’ve made it easy for myself since most of mine are plugged into power strips so with the flick of a couple switches I can turn most of them off.  And the last time we had the alert, I reprogrammed my thermostat to stay at 78 during the day – so that’s taken care of.

Can you help me think of any other ways to conserve power?  Let me know in the comments!

Want to know more about the ComEd program?  Click this link  – and if you don’t have ComEd as your electric provider, check to see if there’s a similar program in your area.