National Teach Your Children to Save Day is a day to teach your children about the role and importance of money and how best to use it. One important way to save money is by reducing your home’s electricity bill through awareness about the home’s energy usage.
We track calories, footsteps, budgets, and rewards points — yet it’s astonishing that we know so little about the energy we use in our homes. We’d never leave the house with a faucet running water, yet we live with electrical “faucets” left on every day.
Here are some questions you and your children can answer to find out whether your daily choices are helping save on home energy. Print out the scavenger hunt so your children can walk around the house and answer each question.
For more energy-saving actions, check out our recent article, 6 Ways to Cut Your Home’s Energy Costs Right Now, and to learn more about tracking your home’s activity every day, visit our home page at Sense.com.
A) Yes, almost all of the lights in the house are on.
B) Yes, there are a few lights on where they don’t need to be.
C) No, lights are only turned on in rooms where people are.
Tip: One way to limit your home’s energy usage and save money is to make sure that once you leave the room you turn off the lights!
A) Yes, all electronics are always plugged in if no one is using them.
B) One or two devices were plugged in while fully charged but someone will be unplugging them soon.
C) Our electronics are connected to a power strip which is turned off when the devices are not in use or have been fully charged.
Tip: Even when your electronics are not being used or charged actively, they’re still using power, which is sometimes called vampire energy. Using a power strip means that you can turn off all of the electronics, reducing the vampire energy they use otherwise. Nearly a quarter of all household electricity is used by devices that stay on continuously, like consumer electronics.
A) Let it fall asleep.
B) Depends on the day because sometimes I just forget.
C) I always shut down the computer once I’m done.
Tip: When you don’t shut down your computer, the screensaver continues to use energy even though the computer isn’t in use at the moment. Shutting down the computer means it’s completely off so there is no excess power being used.
A) More than 20 minutes
B) 8-15 minutes
C) 5-8 minutes
Tip: A hot shower is relaxing, but a 12-minute shower increases energy cost by almost 1.5 times over an 8-minute shower. The extra 4 minutes increases a home’s energy bill by 50%! Taking shorter showers can help you save drastically.
A) Mostly incandescent light bulbs
B) A mix of incandescent, fluorescent, and LEDs
C) Mostly LEDs
Tip: LED lights use 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb. Substituting LEDs for less efficient bulbs can save lots of energy and money every day!
If you answered mostly A’s: Read the tips after every question to learn more about what you can do to save. Tell the rest of the family what you’ve learned and start changing your habits right away.
If you answered mostly B’s: You’ve been taking some steps to save energy but there is always more you can do to get rid of wasted energy.
If you answered mostly C’s: Good job! You’ve been careful with energy use. Now you know some of the best ways to save even more energy and money.
Hannah Bardei contributed this blog. This spring, Hannah has been working as a Sense intern through a program at Minuteman High School in Lexington, Massachusetts.
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