Anyone did this before?? I'm trying an expeirment, I'm trying to keep all unused lights and tvs off. I want to see how money it really saves me a month. Dh is constantly complaining about lights left on around here. I actually don't think we leave all that many lights running on a regular basis, but we'll see what sort of diffrence it makes.

The down side is, I'm constantly following the kids around, turing off lights or reminding them to turn off lights, Turn off tvs, unplug things that aren't being used. What a PITN! LOL

If anyone has tried this, how much on average do you save montly?

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan7.Samantha6,Cameron4

Back together!! Sept 28th Boston TDCenter!! Woohooooo!

I have been trying to do this myself, especially since they raised our rates per kilowatt (it was not supposed to start until next year, but they gave us a nice fat expensive electric bill!). I won't find out how much of a difference we made until next months bill! ray: I hope it is lower!

i have done this and still i do see a difference not alot but a little. our bill is suppost to increase too. i read some where to do laundry early in the day or later cuz it helps too, i don't know if that is true or not.

We did this along with changing all the lights to energy efficient ones (that was a big one time cost) and it worked so well the hydro company noticed the difference and showed up to check our meter because they thought it had broken, our use went down so much! Seriously. They even changed the meter just in case and it wasn't broken. We've now made back all the money we spent on the energy efficient bulbs.

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How much more expensive are energy efficent bulbs? the problem in our house is that NONE of the outlets are grounded, We bought it this way and are slowly changing each one over. We go through light bulbs like crazy!! I buy the cheap Walmart kind because we go through so many so quickly.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan7.Samantha6,Cameron4

Back together!! Sept 28th Boston TDCenter!! Woohooooo!

I'm not sure how much they would be in your area. We went to Home Depot (do you have that in the US?) and found that if a regular bulb was $1, an energy efficient one was about $10 so they are about 10X the costs but they also last about 10X as long and they use a lot less electricity, so over time they are a much better deal. But you would have to ask if they are ok to use if it isn't grounded. I know you can't use them on dimmer lights but I'm not sure about the grounding thing.

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watch for sales here we can get them at menards home depot lowes walmart usually can get a 3pk on sale for 6.95. just keep your eyes out i buy them when they are a good deal we only have a few left to replace in our house..

Lowes just had a rebate on the energy efficient bulbs but it has ended. I should have posted about it, but I have been out of town for almost a month because of family stuff. I saw on another board that Walmart has the bulbs for 99 cents because they are doing some kind of deal with an electric company. I looked at my Walmart and they didn't. Even if you have to pay for them, they are cheaper and better than they were years ago. They used to be big and not fit in light fixtures and not very bright. Now they are ok. They are supposed to pay for themselves!

When I got my first apartment like 13 yrs ago, I did a "time of day" rate, where the rate for electric was say like 11 cents during the day and 4 cents at night and weekends. So I would have heat off during day and do wash at night and with electric heat, boy did that save us alot of money! I would think they still do it, might be worth it to try for a few mos. and see if it saves you money! I may do it too!!

We do use energy efficient bulbs. And we have cut down on the usage of lights around here. While I have done these things, I am HORRIBLE at going around and unplugging things. When we switched bulbs and shut things off it cut about $10 off our monthly bill. (That was during summer months)