I was thinking about this today...we are always thinking of ways to save on electricity. So I thought I would do a poll and get my friends' ideas on how you save electricity.

Here are some of the ways we save on electricity:
* hanging laundry to dry (I need to try to do this more than I have been)
* opening windows when the weather is nice
* only running the washing machine when we have a full load
* turning off lights when leaving a room
* the last few summers I kept the thermostat set higher to use less electricity, but this year I'm keeping it a little cooler, since we have a new baby
* turning off or unplugging things that have display lights (like CD players, VCRs, etc.)
* last summer I bought insulated curtains on sale and put on all our windows. This makes a big difference on heating and cooling, but especially so during the summer
* Gary installed an attic fan last summer that is solar powered
* Gary blew in some insulation in our attic last summer, since there was very little insulation
* Last week, Gary installed some soffit vents in our attic to create more circulation and get some of the hot air out
* window awning - Gary made one for our kitchen window last year, and it makes a HUGE difference, as the sun beats down on that side of the house in the afternoon (now we need them on the sun room windows, as well)
* When I'm organized, I like to use my crockpot to save electricity, and plan my cooking so that if I turn on my oven it is to bake more than one item (ex., bake bread and brownies - seems more efficient to me than turning on the oven to bake only one item)
* I use a small electric teakettle to heat my water for tea, as it uses less electricity than my microwave or stove
* I always let the dishes in my dishwasher air dry rather than use electricity to have the machine dry them
* I saw a tip on the Planet Green channel the other day that said if you throw a dry towel into your dryer whenever you dry a load, it will cut the drying time in HALF. I have been trying to remember to do that each time. It does seem to cut down drying time quite a bit.
* we switched all of our lightbulbs from standard lightbulbs to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs.

Here are some things we NEED to be doing:
* turning off our computers EVERY night
* plant more trees to eventually provide more shade
* turn off ceiling fans when we leave a room
* turn off nightlights during the day
* we would love to insulate the walls of our house, but that would be a huge undertaking
* if we got rid of our little fridge, it would probably save a good bit

Also, I just found out about this site that helps you figure out how much electricity your appliances use. I really want to figure up how much my dryer, microwave, and fans use.  Also, Gary bought a device a while back that you plug things into and it tells you how many kilowatts they use, so you can figure up the cost to run them. I need to ask him how to use it. The only thing is, it won't work with my dryer since it's 240 volt.

Anyway, what do YOU do to save electricity?

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