Without Dash

Save on electricity:

1. Know how much electricity you are using. When buying appliances, check the power and see if there are more economical appliances. A 3000 Watt industrial vacuum cleaner is really not necessary for home use.
2. Pull the plug. Appliances that include a clock or chargers of cell phones or cameras are still sucking electricity when not in use. On an average, 40% of electricity at home is used for these appliances while they are turned off or in standby mode. The obvious way to save on electricity is to pull the plug. It also protects you from fire, since this is the # 1 reason for fires in homes.
3. Ditch the electric gadgets. Many gadgets are not much more useful than their non-electric counterpart. Get rid of electric can openers, shoe polishers, coffee grinders, electric pepper mills, shower CD-player, electric vegetable peelers, etc.

Heating/cooling:

4. Set thermostats no higher than 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) in winter and no lower than 25 Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer. Each extra degree in winter can increase heating costs by 3%. When cooling, each degree colder can raise costs by 6%.
5. Fans can really cool a house in summer if set up correctly. Ideally, you want to set them up to draw in cool air from the shaded side of the house and move it to the warmer areas.
6. Plant tall bushes and trees to shade your home result in less need for air conditioning in hot months and help block out harsh winds in winter time.
7. Wear the right clothes for the season, like sweaters and pants in the winter, so you won’t have to turn the heater that high.
8. Don’t heat areas of your house you don’t use, like guest rooms and keep the doors shut to these rooms.
9. Use a programmable thermostat that raises or lowers the thermostat setting depending on the time of day. This helps save on heating when no one is at home.
10. Use your drapes, shades and curtains efficiently. Open them and let the sun shine in to help heat the house on cold days. Pull the drapes on warm days pull the draped to keep the heat out and let the air conditioning work more effectively.
11. Ventilate your rooms properly on a daily basis, but remember to switch off your heater, fan or air conditioner while ventilating the room.
12. Heating a space is more costing than heating a person. Use radiators and fan heaters to heat up only part of a room.
13. Keep filters and condenser coils of air- conditioners clean.
14. Do not heat the great outdoors. Insulate by putting weather stripping around your doorframes.

Fridge:

15. Cover liquids in the fridge. Evaporation will make the fridge have to work harder.
16. Do not position your fridge in direct sunlight or near the oven or other heat source.
17. Defrost your fridge and freezer on a regular basis. More than a cm of ice in the freezer will decrease efficiency considerably.
18. Keep the back and bottom of the fridge clean of dust to let the heat out properly.
19. Do not place hot food in the refrigerator, but let it to cool down first.

Water heater:

20. If your water heater is in an unheated space, wrap it in an insulation blanket to prevent heat loss. Especially older models are less efficient and require insulation.
21. Reduce the temperature of your geyser to around 55 degrees Celsius (130 Fahrenheit) so that you don’t need to add too much cold water when you shower or do the dishes. No need to heat water to a temperature that you do not use.

Lights:

22. Replace all of your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. They last longer than traditional light bulbs and use less electricity.
23. Replace all “non-reading” lights with lower wattage light bulbs.
24. Turn off ALL lights that are not being used.
25. Consider solar powered garden lamps for outdoor lighting.
26. For security lighting, use sensor lights that will only switch on when someone approaches.

Cooking:

27. Defrost food in the fridge overnight, rather than using the microwave.
28. Turn off an electric stove and oven a few minutes before time is up. Residual heat will finish the job perfectly.
29. When making a cup of tea, only boil the amount of water that you need. Boiling a full kettle unnecessarily is a waste of electricity.
30. Use a microwave to cook as it is quicker and cheaper, 1 oven uses the same power as 18 microwaves. Although a microwave uses a lot of power, it does so over a very short time and so saves energy overall.
31. Always match the size of the pan with the size of the stove plate.

Laundry:

32. Use cold water to wash your clothes. Yes, it will be clean with cold water as well.
33. Reduce your electricity account by skipping the washing machine’s pre-wash cycle if your clothes are not particularly dirty.
34. Dry your clothes on a clothes line rather than in the tumble dryer.
35. If using the tumble dryer, fold clothes while they are still warm to save on ironing.
36. Iron all clothes in one time, instead of one piece at the time that you need it.

Saving water:

37. Fix running toilets or leaking faucets.
38. Close the faucet when you are brushing your teeth or shaving. Only turn it on when needed.
39. Install flow restricting shower heads or consider faucet aerators (they blend water and air, reducing the flow without sacrificing pressure).
40. Always do full loads of laundry. Several small loads use considerably more water than one or two large loads.
41. Put a bottle of water in your toilet tank to lower the amount of water that it takes move the floater to the place where it shuts off the water.
42. Get a dual flush toilet – to use less water for small messages, and more water for larger messages.
43. Take a shower instead of a bath.
44. Limit shower time to 5 minutes.
45. Installing a drip irrigation system for your garden to keep moisture in the soil. It can save 50%-60% of water compared to a sprinkler system.
46. When watering the garden, set a schedule and try to water in the early morning hours when it is still cool to help minimize evaporation.
47. Re-use greywater for watering gardens and lawns.
48. Collect rainwater for watering gardens and lawns.
49. When you clean your fish tank, use the ‘old’ nitrogen and phosphorous-rich water on your plants.
50. Do not wash dishes under a running tap. Instead fill one sink with dishwater and one with rinse water. Or stack them in a rack and use a pan of water to rinse them.