Winter is a time when we use more electricity than any other time of the year (unless you’re one who blasts the AC all summer long). It gets dark earlier so we put the lights on at 4p instead of 7p. We don’t want to hang our clothes out to dry because the clothes freeze on the line. Heating our homes also uses a lot of electricity, especially if your home has electric heat as its primary heat source. Here are some ways to reduce your electric consumption during the Dark Time. Start by unplugging all those non-necessary pieces of electric equipment not in use.
When you plug in a phone charger, it draws energy from the grid, even if it’s a tiny amount. That adds up each month especially when each member of the family has their own cellphone. It’s the same with clocks, DVD players, radios, computers, and all the other lovely electronic devices we all have around our houses. Wolf and I put all plugs onto power strips. When we’re asleep at night, or out of the house all day, we keep the strips unplugged, not just turned off, because the power strips still use electricity when plugged in. This reduces the amount of electricity we use each month.
One of the biggest electricity hogs in your home is the dryer. Cat’s post talked about this earlier this year. Now that winter has come to the northern hemisphere, you may not want to hang your clothes outside. Hang them inside on an inside clothes line in your basement (if you have one) or hang the clothes on wooden racks. Sure it takes longer for the clothes to dry, but in the end, a 20-50% decrease in your electric bill is worth it. It is also worth the reduction in your personal carbon footprint and the amount of electricity drawn from nuclear power plants.
Keeping the heat in your house and not outside (after all, you aren’t trying to heat the outdoors are you?) is also an excellent way to keep your electricity usage down. I put heavy drapes over all the doors and windows here on Howling Hill. As soon as dusk starts to settle in, I close the drapes. I am careful not to turn on every light in the house because I’ve made it darker than it was. Use candles you have around the house to light your way. Wear heavy sweaters to keep your body heat in so you can turn that temperature gauge way, way down.
With these simple changes you will see a decreases in your electric bill and you’ll be protecting Mother Earth from all kinds of pollutants.
One of the potential downsides to drying clothing indoors, especially if you’re in a humidity-prone area like the Pacific Northwe(s)t, is mold and mildew. These are already pretty significant problems in many homes here, to the point where renters often have to sign a separate agreement to report any mold that appears to the landlord. So having a room that is constantly housing drying laundry may not be a good option, especially for those in small apartments in these areas.
Any alternative ideas?
Hi Lupa!
The only thing that come to mind is that: if you have a high spin on your washer that make your clothe almost dry then it will help a lot. Other then that using thumble in the dryer with no heat should do the job. I am not sure if the longest time used at thumble will make it a good trade for the no heat though. the final answer: wash less often? If you layer you should wash only the fisrt layer and not all your clothing unless really smelly or vivibly dirty.
We have that problem here in NH too.
I put the racks over the heating vents so the clothes aren’t just hanging around wet for days at a time. Also, I check the clothes at least once a day to see what has already dried and put it away that way the number of clothes on the racks decreases daily.
Another trick to dry clothes (or at least give them a boost in that direction) is to put the drying rack in front of the oven after cooking and leave it open a bit after you’ve turned the oven off. Not only does it help heat your kitchen a bit, but it’ll also help dry your clothes. I try to coordinate some cooking on the same day as laundry day for this reason. Not sure if it actually helps that much, but it seems like a good idea.
I’ve also seen a fairly significant decrease in drying time by specifically not putting jeans and towels into the dryer. Work shirts, t-shirts, etc. all dry pretty quickly and don’t hold that much water (usually) but the other stuff does, so leaving it out of the dryer can help a lot.
Great post, HH!
In past years, Jeff and I have done a “lights out” project with the kids during the time between Samhain and solstice – we keep all of the lights off even after it gets dark, and use only candles to light our way. We eat dinner by candlelight, then after dinner we play music or tell stories together. Sometimes Jeff will read out loud, which means all of the candles have to be near him so he can see and the rest of us get to snuggle together in the dark.
It’s only a small thing, and not for the full winter, but I think it really helps the kids appreciate just how much electricity we use and what life can be like when you need or want to go without it.