Rochelle Odell
Hemet, CA
I have made a pledge to reduce my energy costs. Because I am income qualified, due to being disabled, I allowed my electric company to install a "Swamp Cooler" (water evaporative cooler) in my bedroom wall to use instead of my air conditioner and it's cut my electric bill in half during the summer. If I open the sliding door in my second bedroom just a crack and the same with the front door, the cooler cools my whole house.
I also had a solid wood front door installed to help decrease heating and cooling costs. I have my whole patio covered to help keep the back of the house cooler. Where it gets the most sun in the summer, I have criss-cross panels on two sides of the patio cover to help keep the patio cooler, and because the evaporative cooler is mounted in the wall of the master bedroom, it's under the patio, and never gets any sun on it, cutting down running costs as well.
I recently had my carpet removed in my living room and hallway to help keep the home cooler since I live in the desert and our winters are very short. I keep my blinds closed during the day once it begins to warm up. I had two flourescent lights installed in my kitchen and the old, light fixtures that used regular light bulbs removed.
I put stripping around the front screen to help keep the heat and cold out. Because I have two small dogs, when I leave, I prop open my door that leads from the kitchen to the garage where they can do their business on potty pads. I put up a heavy blanket over the doorway, so that when I leave and the door is propped open, the blanket keeps the heat and cold out of the house, they just go under the blanket to get in and out. Plus, when I am home, with the blanket over the door, it helps keep the kitchen cooler from the garage heat.
Because I can't tolerate the cold due to my pain, rather than turn my thermostat up in the winter, I have an electric lap blanket to wrap myself in to stay warm. Due to my chronic pain syndrome, I cannot tolerate cold, so the lap blanket uses far less electricity than trying to heat the whole house. I also use energy efficient tower fans when I don't need the cooler. I recently replaced my front porch light with a new, energy efficient one that only comes on when motion is detected and I use energy efficient bulbs in both the back and front lights.
Rather than using the standard large bulbs that are very bright to light up the whole back yard, I just use an energy efficient yellow bulb.
Although I like my recently redone living room, I find I am spending more time in my bedroom, where it is cooler, and I can run the cooler which is right by the bed on low instead of high.
Once the sun goes down, even though it is still warm, I get a gentle breeze through the house and I turn off the cooler and open the sliding door in my second bedroom and my front door, and because I have a wrought iron steel security screen, in the summer, I often sleep with it open to help keep the house cooler. I can tolerate the heat better than most people, so I don't mind temperatures at 85 degrees in the summer. I turn off my desktop computer when I am not using it and do the same with my laptop.
I also have all desert landscaping in my front and back yards to save water. I only have minimal plants to water.
I believe being disabled, I have done more than most people do to keep their homes energy efficient. I purchased a small vacuum that runs on a battery system, and it cuts back on having to using the larger vacuum.
Because I like to fall asleep with the television on, I set a timer, so that it will go off in an hour, and by then I am sound asleep.
I only drive when I have to, mainly due to the high cost of gasoline.
I believe I am doing more than my part to help save energy costs.
I have neighbors who keep their air conditioner set at 70 degrees, day and night and when they complain about their $300 electric bill vs. my $45 to $50 in the hottest months, I just say "too bad, that's an awful lot of money". I would have to say having the evaporative water cooler installed in the master bedroom, actually cut and mounted in the wall, and the solid wood front door has made the biggest change in my summer electric bills which used to be almost double of what the charges are now.
One last thing, the City of Hemet offers a water conservation kit, where you get a plastic bag to put water in, and place in the water storage part of the toilet, a water head to save water in the shower, and two energy efficient hand held water sprays that hook to the hoses.
Sincerely,
Rochelle
Hemet, CA