Useing less electricity, please let me know what else can cut.?

Xdatinelia

We live 6 to a single family house, 3 generations. I am the daughter in law. In any room we use to ourselves I have everything on power strips, all but 2 desk lamps with dimmers are cfl, I turn off fans, power strips to tv's, and all lights as much as I can. I use my computer during the day, so it stays on, but I make sure the strip is off before I go to sleep. We had an extra microwave & dorm sized fridge in our living room, I disconnected those & put in the garage because we didn't expressly NEED them. We have 2 reptiles I have limited to 8 hours a day on incandescent bulb heat (40w) & put their under the tank heaters on a timer for the rest of the time. I just feel like I could do more, but i don;t know what is left to cut, I even got rid of our led nightlight because It wasn't 100% necessity.

My Father in law is willing to embrace this style of living but my mother in law isn't. I can count 3 incandescent electric night lights she runs 24/7 in the kitchen alone with 2 led ones, these all have daylight sensors, but she has em unter the cabinet & uses for light there. One of thise incandescent bulb touch lamps runs 24/7 in another room for night light too, also a indoor fountain runs 24/7. 3 tv's not turned on all the time but not on power strips & left plugged in, mil's computer runs 24/7 along with the 50 strands if incandescent christmas lights she has running (only for 3 hours a day but still) and 3 outdoor fountains.

I am guilty myself of leaving my husband's shaver plugged in 24/7 cause I can't figure out how to get a timer in the bathroom safetly. I leave one power strip truend on 24/7 that has the baby swing plugged in to it. The entiere house has 4-5 things pulgged into battery chargers like power drills 24/7. Mil/fil's side of the house also has lights on in the garage 24/7

I am stressed because I don;t think we can make out power bill this month even. I have done everything short of go back to handwashing my clothes and turning my mil psycho because I turned off *her* stuff. I just don't know what else I can cut from my side of the house with out hurting us.

Suggestiions are needed & welcome, please help
We go through the second tier of electricity even. There is a new meter on the house, certified electrician installed, but not someone from CPL. We even had then put that thing on our ac that cuts it off for 15 min an hour on high demend days. As it stands I can not cut anything else but laundry & heating bottles for oyr 5 month ol. I will see if fil will call cpl & see what happens there.

Answer
i agree with the above poster, although make sure that they are actually checking your meter. Often times power companies will just estimate your usage rather than actually check (awful right?). Also, if heat is a problem, insulation will always help. Using a little caulk on the windowsills and any open areas will help insulate. Also, replace ALL incandescent bulbs with the new coiled energy saver ones. Turn off the fountain. Fountains outside put on timers. Otherwise you're doing very well, congrats and good luck.

Is buying the latest technology really green?

Charles C

My television is around 10 years old, it still works, and I am fine with it. The original battery hungry remote control sits in a drawer unused, and I use the remote to my cable box to control the volume.

Now I could go out and buy the latest technology in TVs, and get all the frills like energy star compliance and such, but is that really being green?

My TV is already made, though it may use a little more electricity than the new ones, how much power is used to build a new one, package it for shipment, and how much fuel transport it to the store where I buy it? It's a big TV, and if I replace it, it will be with another big one, so it will probably be delivered. How much fuel will that take? In my area most televisions go to a landfill. What's the effects there? If I do find a place to recycle it, what about the fuel used to transport it there? how much energy will be used recycling it? How much of it will be recycled?

I wont be replacing my TV soon, i just want to know would it really environmentally friendly to replace it or other items in my home?

Answer
If it still works and you don't see any need (or major want) for a new TV then from simple economics you're better off keeping it without having to worry about the planet.

LCD and Plasma screens do have higher efficiency but if a screen is big there's no way to not have it draw a lot of power (which goes to heat and so might not be a problem in winter). There is also the question of whether power usage matters, if most of your electricity comes from nuclear or hydro then it won't really matter how much power the thing uses (and leaving all the incandescent heaters on all day will be perfectly fine from a global warming point of view) although I suspect that most of your electricity comes from fossil fuel burning.

In terms of the materials in the TV, LCD TV's contain mercury in their backlights (so don't break them, LED backlights without mercury are mostly showing up in laptops (lower power consumption) and very high end computer monitors (better colour rendition than CCFLs)) while CRT's tend to contain lead (to stop the X-rays generated when the electrons hit the shadow mask) so they really should be recycled (although the lead in CRT's isn't likely to leach out if it were just dumped).

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