The Light Direction Blog:
"Inflation Nation: How can certain lighting and electrical tips help consumers cope in inflationary times" by Frank Grobmeier
If you’ve been to the gas pumps or grocery stores recently, you know that consumer and energy prices have skyrocketed.
The annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 9.1% in June 2022, the highest since November of 1981. Energy prices rose 41.6%, the most since 1980, boosted by gasoline (up 59.9%), fuel oil (up 98.5%), natural gas (up 38.4%) and electricity (up 13.7%).
Food costs surged 10.4%, the most since February 1981 and costs have jumped in almost every major economic category including new vehicles (up 11.4%), household furnishings (up 9.5%) and air fares (up 34.1%).
What this all means is our pocketbooks are lighter and our minds are heavier. The consumer is feeling the squeeze like at no time in our lifetimes.
So how does the average American family or average American small business cope during these harsh economic conditions. The answer is simple, they need to cut back and reduce spending on certain items to be able to afford the higher cost of the necessary items.
Electricity costs are a great place to start because consumers in the U.S. account for almost 20% of the world’s energy usage. If you want to think about how we have become the great consumers of power all you have to do is think back to when you were a child. For me it was in the early 80’s. How many things in your house had a digital clock back then? For me it was one thing, the VCR (and yes it always blinked 12:00… only a few of us old timers will get that reference). How many things in your house today have a digital clock? I bet a lot. Maybe stoves, microwaves, alarm clocks, thermostats, washing machines etc. All those clocks mean they’re appliances that consume power… and you pay for.
Here are 20 small steps you can make to save money on your electricity bills.
1. Don’t stand in front of your refrigerator thinking about what to grab. Letting that cold air escape wastes enough energy to power 50 loads of laundry.
2. Turn off your computer at night. Computers are some of the biggest energy guzzlers and you can turn them off and on over 40,000 times without affecting their lifespan.
3. Turn down your screen brightness. Reducing your computer screen’s brightness from 100% to 70% can save 20% of its energy use. Don’t stop there, try and reduce your TV screen brightness as well.
4. Unplug your electronics and chargers when not in use. Many of them use standby power or phantom energy when powered off.
5. Here’s the ultimate “Duh”… turn off the lights in a room when you’re not in there.
6. Review your outdoor lighting and switch to solar or adjust your timers so they’re not on all night. Even a few hours a night of savings can have a huge impact on your energy costs.
7. Use natural light as much as possible. Pull back the drapes or blinds and let the sunlight in and turn off the lamps. Two 100W incandescent bulbs turned off an extra 2 hours per day can save you over $10-$15 per year.
8. However, if it’s really hot and sunny and you’re using the air conditioner then keep those blinds closed because you’ll use more energy with the AC unit running than the lamps.
9. And speaking of incandescent bulbs… Why are you still using incandescent bulbs?!? Switch to LED bulbs or new energy-efficient LED fixtures. They use 75-80% less electricity, and they last 25 times longer. There are also plenty of incentives to help you and we’ll talk about them later on in this article.
10. Use light dimmers you can dim the lights when you’re watching TV or doing other activities that don’t require bright light.
11. Hang clothes to air dry instead of using the dryer.
12. Use cold water in the washing machine and only wash full loads.
13. Wash dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher… at least sometimes.
14. Adjust your AC Temperature setting higher by 1 or 2 degrees. Each degree increase saves about 10% energy use.
15. Clean or replace filters on furnaces or air conditioners once a month or as recommended. The units will run much better and save energy.
16. Use fans to cool your room. While AC costs about 35-40 cents per hour to run, a ceiling fan costs about 1-2 cents and even though you may not want to turn the AC off altogether you can generally set the temp 4 degrees higher and use the fan to help cool things down.
17. Wait until hot foods cool before putting them in the fridge. This prohibits the fridge from working overtime to keep things cool.
18. Install a programable or smart thermostat.
19. Clean your clothes dryer’s lint trap before every load. It’s a small, easy step that will reduce the strain on your dryer and improves its energy efficiency.
20. Insulate your home better. It can make a huge difference in your HVAC costs.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to reduce energy in your home or your business is to improve your energy efficient lighting and add controls to be able to manage them better. But earlier we said that consumers are feeling the financial squeeze so how are we supposed to pay for new lighting and controls when we have to take out a small business loan to pay for a tank of gas in our trucks? Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the fact remains it’s difficult to spend money up front to get savings over time in energy.
That’s where financial incentives in the form of utility rebates come in. Many public utilities and utility co-ops are offering rebates to incentivize the public to upgrade to energy efficient lighting and controls. So, check with your power company to see if they can help you with your upgrade or discuss your lighting upgrades with an Energy Service Company. Many ESCOs will come to your facility and do a free energy audit and offer a program to help you save on both your lighting and HVAC costs. They also can discuss the available rebates and perhaps can even help you find a way to finance the upgrade.
One final thing that has to be mentioned, especially with the influx of electric vehicles being sold today. If you buy an electric car, you probably will end up adding an EV charging station to your home or business to charge your EV. That will tack on an estimated $50-$75 per month in energy costs depending on how much you drive and charge. It still is about 3.5 times cheaper than fueling a gas-powered vehicle but do plan for your electric bills to rise. You could consider a whole house solar upgrade or an energy efficient lighting upgrade or any one of the other small energy saving tips we mentioned earlier.
Frank Grobmeier has over 30 years of product management and marketing experience with lighting manufacturers including decades in general lighting and specialty lighting with traditional and LED sources. He currently serves as on the Fanlight / Naturaled marketing management team and resides in the Chicago area.