Fifteen Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills Year Round by Combining Good Energy Saving Habits with Simple Energy Saving Solutions. Part 3 of 3.

Fifteen Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills Year Round by Combining Good Energy Saving Habits with Simple Energy Saving Solutions.  Part 3 of 3.

Hi everybody Use My Guy here with the third and final part of my series about saving money on your utilities by building better habits.  Included is the third and most important step to changing your habits for the better.  Don't forget to check out part 1 and 2 for more tips and tricks for saving on your utilities.  Cheers!!

Step 3) Replace the Bad Habits with Good Habits.  

    The final step is also the most important one.  A study done by the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at the University of Massachusetts regarding new year’s resolutions showed that after the first month of the resolution only 60 percent of people are still following those resolutions and by month 6 only 30 percent are still working towards completing those goals.

    This tells us that breaking and forming habits can be a very difficult process.  The best way to stave off the old habit is to form a new, beneficial habit to take its place.  For instance if you leave the water running while you brush your teeth put a piece of colored tape on your faucet handle to remind you to turn it off while brushing.  Then reward yourself with something as simple as a positive affirmation about yourself when you do the right thing.  This will not only help you to get into the habit of turning off the water but it will also help your self-esteem and that’s a win-win situation.

11)  Install timed or motion activated faucets.

    These faucets aren’t just for your bathroom anymore, they can go everywhere from the kitchen sink to the garage washbasin.  Motion activated faucets not only save you money by ensuring that water is not being run if it’s not being used, they also help to keep germs from spreading by ensuring that dirty hands don’t have to touch the handle.  Now to show you how the savings happen.

    Federal Plumbing Standards dictate that kitchen faucets use no more than 2.5 gallons per minute and bathroom faucets use no more than 2.2 gallons per minute.  This means that when you leave your faucet running while you brush your teeth or wash your hands you are using at least 2.2-2.5 gallons with standard faucets.  That’s where Water Sense Faucets come in.  These are faucets that are certified by the EPA to use no more than 1.5 gallons per minute.  This means that every time you use a Water Sense Faucet you will be saving .7 gallons per minute. 

    So let’s do the math.  Let’s say that the average person washes their hands 15 times a day for thirty seconds.  That’s 7.5 minutes a day spent washing hands.  With a standard faucet you will be using about 16.5 gallons a day just to wash your hands.  That’s just one person, multiply that by the average family of four and suddenly it’s up to 66 gallons a day.  Just from washing your hands and that’s not to mention rinsing dishes, brushing your teeth or washing your face, think about the endless water saving possibilities from just this one upgrade.  If you upgrade to a Water Sense Faucet and it is also a motion activated faucet you will save even more water every time you use it.

    Let’s do the math again with the Water Sense numbers.  If you spend 7.5 minutes a day washing your hands and you use a Water Sense faucet that uses 1.5 gallons per minute you will only be using 11.25 gallons a day.  Multiply that by a family of four and you will be using 45 gallons a day instead of 66, that’s a savings of 21 gallons a day and 7,665 gallons a year.

12)  Solar powered outdoor lighting.

    Everyone loves a tastefully lit backyard but outdoor lighting can be expensive to maintain and if you don’t have a low voltage system than you are likely using more electricity than you need to.  The numbers for saving on your bills in this scenario are not as impressive as some of the other ideas I’ve shown you recently.  However putting in solar powered lighting for your back yard will increase the ease of access for your backyard by ensuring that all the lights come on at night without you having to turn them on and then later off, if you remember to that is. 

    Using solar powered lights also drastically reduces the level of knowledge necessary for proper maintenance.  If one of the lights stops working replacing it is as simple as going to your local hardware store, buying another light and pushing it into the ground.  With wired systems moisture and sun damage can cause a variety of problems that will require an electrician with a good knowledge base to determine the problem and often the whole system will need to be replaced because of corrosion to the wires running under the ground.  So if you want beautiful, unique and easy to maintain lighting than check out the options for solar lighting, there are literally thousands of styles and one is sure to fit your budget and taste.

13)  Plant region appropriate plants and trees.

    Also known as xeriscaping, this type of landscaping is especially important for a state like Arizona where water conservation should be at the forefront of every-one’s mind.  Having a properly xeriscaped yard can save tens of thousands of gallons of water a year and it will save you time because you will not have to spend time watering your plants every-day.  Keep in mind that a 10x10 plot of grass requires 62 gallons every time it is watered to ensure that the water goes to the roots to help it grow a strong root system.  If you water every day-and you most likely do if you live in Arizona- this means that your 10x10plot of grass is using 24,090 gallons of water a year.  Here are some ideas for xeriscaping your home that will beautify your yard and also save you up to 120.00 a year.

         1)       Instead of grass how about rock.  Rock comes in many beautiful and unique colors and shapes that will turn your yard into a distinctive piece of art.

         2)      Plant trees like Palo-Verde, Desert Willow or Acacias.  These trees require little watering and provide good shade and flower beautifully when in season.

         3)      Use plants like the Arizona Rosewood and cacti instead of flowers or shrubs not native to Arizona.

         4)      If grass is a must than water it at the right time of day which is early morning for Arizona, not afternoon or evening.

14)  Use an evaporative cooler for as long as possible.

     I know this sounds like a pain but evaporati  In the early summer months an evaporative cooler uses 250Kwh and a central A/C system uses 850Kwh.  That means that an evaporative cooler uses nearly 3/4s less energy than an A/C unit does.  Evaporative coolers can be run into mid-late May throughout most of the valley which means that if you are like me and have a 400.00 utility bill the end of April then you can save over 300.00 dollars just by switching to an evaporative cooler during the early summer months.  Additionally evaporative coolers cost a fraction of the price of A/C units making them one of the most affordable ways to save money.

ve coolers are very effective in the early summer months in Arizona because of the dry heat that is so exclusive to desert regions       
like ours.

15)  Here I am going to total the amount of savings possible if you follow the ideas I have laid out for you in this 3 part series on saving on your utilities.

    Yearly Savings on Water:  Low flow toilet-20,000 gallons a year, watering at the right time of day-36,000 gallons a year, water pressure regulator-40,000 gallons a year, motion sensing faucets-7,665 gallons a year, xeriscaping your yard-24,000-36,000 gallons a year.

    That’s a total of 127,665 gallons a year you could be saving just by forming good habits and changing to water efficient fixtures.

    Yearly savings on electricity:  Programmable thermostat-60.00 yearly, ceiling fans-128.00 yearly, change air filters regularly-480.00 yearly, switch to LEDs-108.00 yearly, evaporative cooler-1050.00 yearly.

    That’s 1826.00 that could theoretically be saved a year based off of an average utility cost of 3200.00 annually.  In homes that are already energy efficient you will not see as drastic of savings as those of us in older homes or manufactured homes, however it never hurts to go through your home and see what changes could be made to make your home even more earth friendly than it already is.

    I truly hope that these tips and tricks have been helpful and will save you lots of money for years to come.  Just remember that to see any real savings you have to follow these steps every day and encourage those living with you to join you as you save money and make the world a better place one drop at a time.

    If you need a handyman to help you out with any of these things than Use My Guy Services your local family owned and operated handyman service is here to save the day.  We Have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, we have won the Super Service Award from Angie’s List for 2015 and have dozens of five star reviews on Yelp.  We treat every customer like they are part of the family which means that we guarantee all of our labor on installation so if something goes wrong we come back and make it right, every time.  

    Check us out on Facebook, and our website usemyguyservices.com for more information on our services, values and standards or call us at (602)316-9187 to schedule an appointment with one of our friendly agents today.

Thanks for reading.

Use My Guy