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The Credit Crunch and energy savings

Sorry! couldn't help it. The credit crunch! How could i avoid it.
Having the great love and commitment to this hobby, finances are starting to bite. The main reason for this post is to raise the awareness of how much the utility bills are, and with the cost of keeping a reef . I am aiming to offset my reef running costs by making a few changes in the home.

I have already changed the normal fitting light bulbs in the house to energy saving bulbs, benefits of this reduces a normal 40 watt bulb to a measly 11 watts. Having a young child who likes the light on when he goes to bed for approximately 2 to 3 hours a night in winter months gives effectively 4 nights of lighting with a energy saving light bulb, to what would have been 1 night of lighting. A Great Saving! These bulbs can be purchased very cheaply now! I got 3 branded bulbs from the local supermarket for £1.00.

My home as a number of down lighters approximately 20, these are rated at 50 watts each. These definitely are not good for reducing bills, so i decided to search on the Internet and posted a few questions on the Internet and found some alternative energy saving GU10 bulbs, although various outputs are available it appears the 11watt versions give out about the same output. My searches have shown these at massive different prices so it is worth looking around. But it appears in terms of saving energy these will save more than the normal type energy saving light bulbs most of us have in our homes.

The further step to be taken is to use an appliance called a power down device. these are widely available and the idea of these is to turn off appliances after they have not been used for a while, such things like TVs when not in use. We have all heard about how much these can save, for me is a bad habit. Also what with us having a tumble dryer in the garage, we set and forget till the following morning resulting in the dryer being on standby all night, it is a waste and this will save further electricity costs offsetting my reef costs.
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Anonymous said…
That's funny! I also had a look to the cost of my tank. I am glad of the results! My little 25 gallon reef tank only cost me $10/month in power!

That's not bad!
10 December 2008 at 15:52
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