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It’s important to save electricity because electric companies often produce electricity by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. The burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming and pollutes the air.

 
Energy Saving Tips to Use Throughout the Year to help Reduce Electricity costs :

1.   Be sure to turn off lights when you leave a room.
2.   Turn off machines when you leave a room (examples include TV’s, computers, radios, stereos, video games, VCR’s, and DVD players).
3.   When you go away on a trip, be sure to unplug these same machines because they have stand-by functions that consume  electricity even when they are turned off.
4.   Fill your dishwasher efficiently and limit the number of times you run it.
5.   Don’t put furniture and other things in front of heating and air conditioning vents.
6.   Keep doors and windows closed when heat or air conditioning is on.
7.   Put in a programmable thermostat which will keep your house at the right temperature day and night.  Programmable thermostats can reduce cooling and heating bills up to 10% because they lower the heat or raise the air conditioning when you are not at home.
8.   Check how much electricity your water heater uses. If it uses more than other models of water heaters, replace it with a more efficient one.
9.   Put insulation around the pipes going in and out of your water heater.  If you have an older water heater, put an insulated blanket around it.
10.   If you will be out of town for more than a couple days, turn off your water heater.
11.   About once a year, drain one gallon of water from the faucet at the bottom of your water heater.  This gets rid of the sediment in the water which reduces the energy efficiency of your water heater.
12.   Change your furnace filter at least once a year or even more.  Filters get clogged up with dust and dirt that circulate in a house. This means that air has a more difficult time passing through the filter, and then your furnace has to work a lot harder in order to heat the house.
13.   Take a look at the insulation in your attic.  Heat rises, which means that warm air rises into your attic. If you don’t have good enough insulation, heat will be wasted.  Insulation should be 6 inches to 1 foot thick.
14.   Close doors and vents in rooms you are not using.
15.   Hold a ribbon or feather up to windows and doors to see if there are any drafts.  If there are, put in weather stripping or caulking to keep the outside air out and to keep the air conditioning or heating in.
16.   Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth and take shorter showers.  This will not only save water, but it will also save the electricity that it takes to pump and heat the water. 
17.   Make use of daylight hours and do not turn on lights and lamps.
18.   Use one large light bulb instead of a few small ones.  One 100-watt light bulb uses less energy and gives off more light than two 60-watt bulbs.
19.   Use fluorescent light bulbs because they use 75% less energy and last longer than incandescent light bulbs.
20.   Use light bulbs that are low in wattage in areas of your house where you don’t need bright light.
21.   Make sure that outdoor lighting is turned off during the day.  Use motion-detectors lights or timer switches.
22.   Decide what you want from the refrigerator or freezer before you open them so you don’t waste electricity by standing there looking inside and keeping the door open.
23.   Vacuum the coils of your refrigerator every few months in order to lower your energy bill and to keep the condenser working better.
24.   Before putting hot foods into the refrigerator, cool them to room temperature (unless the recipe tells you not to do this).
25.   Cook several food dishes in the oven at the same time.
26.   Keep the oven door closed until the food is done cooking.
27.   Defrost food before you bake or microwave it.  This uses 1/3 less energy than if you baked food that was still frozen.
28.   Wash full loads of clothing instead of smaller ones.  Use the coolest water possible for washing and rinsing the clothes.
29.   Clean the lint filter of your dryer after every load.
30.   Dry full loads of clothes.
31.   Dry one load right after another because this uses less energy since the dryer is already hot.
32.   Be sure to stop the dryer as soon as the clothes are dry.

Summer Tips:

Keep your blinds, drapes or shades closed during the day.

Use ceiling fans or windows fans instead of air conditioning.  Ceiling and window fans use much less electricity.

Only use air conditioning when it is really hot outside.

Turn off your air conditioning if you will be gone from home for a long time.

Clean or replace your air conditioning filters every month (in both central and window air conditioners).

Turn the thermostat up a few degrees when you have the air conditioning on.  74 degrees is very comfortable and you are saving up to 5% on your electric bills for each degree of temperature change.

Plant trees in your yard because they help shade your house in the summer and keep your house cooler.

If you can, shade your air conditioning unit.  If your unit is in the bright sun, it will use up to 5% more energy than if it was in the shade

Winter Tips:

1.   Keep your thermostat at or below 68 degrees. If you are cold, put on a sweater or sweatshirt.  Remember, you are saving up to 5% on your electric bill for every degree of temperature change.
2.   On sunny winter days, open your curtains, drapes, and blinds  to let the sunshine in to warm up your house.
3.   Put clear plastic over some of your windows.  This will work like insulation and prevent cold air from getting in your house.
4.   Put caulking around window frames and doors from the inside.
5.   Make sure windows and doors close well so they do not let any cold air in.
6.   Repair any broken or cracked window glass.
7.   Plant trees in your yard because trees break the cold winter wind before it reaches your house.
8.   If you have a fireplace, make sure you have a tight-fitting damper and keep it closed when you are not using the fireplace.

A voltage tester is equipped with two probes and a light bulb but has no power source.  The 120/240 voltage, or neon-light that shows that there is voltage, lights up when voltage is present.  This device is used to find the incoming hot wire when more than one black wire is in a box and to check for proper grounding.

If you attempt to work inside of a service panel, and this is not recommended for those that are not skilled in electrical work, it is necessary to look for any current leakage, for any electricity that is outside of its proper place.  This should only be attempted after all power to the panel has been turned off.  Once you are sure that there is no electricity coming in to the service panel, remove the panel cover.  Touch one of the voltage tester probes to the ground/neutral busbar (bus) (a busbar in an electrical power distribution refers to thick strips of wire that conduct electricity in, for one, a service panel.)  Touch the other probe to an open space first on one, then on the other hot bus.  If the tester lights up, call an electrician.

Once you have checked that the power is off, insert the probes into the slots of the outlet.  If the bulb does not light up, the power is off.  Test both openings of a duplex receptacle (double container.)  After this, remove the cover plate, and touch probes to bare ends of each pair of black and white wires attached to the receptacle.  Tester should not light.

It is necessary to check for grounding.  Grounding is the process of removing the extra electrical charge on an object by transferring electrons between it and some other item of substantial size. When a charged object is grounded, the excess charge is balanced by the transfer of electrons between the charged thing and a ground. A ground simply said is an object which serves as an outwardly substantial reservoir of electrons.  The ground is capable of transferring electrons to, or receiving electrons from, a charged object in order to neutralize that object.

To check for grounding in a receptacle with power on, put one of the probes in the short (hot) slot.  Then touch the second probe to the bare metal cover plate, or to the plate screw, or insert the second probe in the grounding slot, if there is one.  If tester shines weakly or not at all, the receptacle is not well grounded.  Then, with the power off, remove the cover plate and look for a loose grounding connection.

To test for the electric power at a switch, first turn off the electric power to the circuit and then remove the cover plate over the receptacle.  Place one of the probes on the metal box, or if the box is nonmetallic, place one of the probes on the bare grounding wire.  Touch each switch terminal with the second probe.  If the tester lights up, then there is power coming in to the receptacle.  If this is the case, go back to the electrical service panel and turn off the right circuit.

If you need to find the right incoming hot (electrified) wire in an electrical box, cut power to the circuit.  Remove switch, receptacle, or fixture from the electric box.  You need to bend the loose electric wires away from each other and the electric box because you need to keep these wires from touching each other and from touching the box.  After this has been accomplished, restore the electric power.  Cautiously, touch one of the probes to the metal box (or to the grounding wire if the electric box is made from plastic.)  Then touch the second probe to each black wire.  The voltage tester should light at the hot (electrified) wire.

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