Canadian Geographic sent us these suggestions but we are looking for more:
- Turn off power and/or unplug computers, laptops and gaming devices when not in use
- Turn off lights when leaving a room
- Set fridge temperatures 2.2 – 3.3C
- Organize & remove clutter in the fridge and freezer so less time is spent rummaging around
- Keep fridge 2/3 full so it doesn’t have to work as hard and items keep each other cool
- Use glass containers – retains cold better
- Check the fridge door seal
- Cook multiple dishes at the same time
- Don’t open the door to check on food
- Use small appliances (microwave, rice cooker, blender, electric kettle, toaster oven, slow cooker) over large stoves/ovens
- Turn off the oven early and let the residual heat complete the cooking
- Run only full loads of dishes in the dishwasher
- Turn off the heated dry setting and let the dishes air dry
- Wash clothes in cold water
- Wash clothes only when you have a full load
- Avoid over drying clothing and line-dry when possible
- Clean the lint trap and vacuum the dryer vents regularly
Here are the suggestions we gathered from our crowd sourcing:
- Assuming you have electric heating, reduce the temperature in the house. Especially at night.
- This fall I found out about dusty fridge/ freezer coils. If they are clean, we can save between 11% and 30% on the electricity needed to run this large appliance. Many fridges today have coils under the fridge where a lot of dust and debris gather, even more so if we have pets. There are inexpensive appliance brushes to help us clean and you-tube videos and instructions too.
- No need to wait until the water is boiling to add the veggies. I add them right away (and turn oven off and use residual heat).
- Use small lamp beside me instead of a big light for the whole room.
- Take very short showers.
- Take shower instead of bath
- I seldom use the flat iron, when I know I’m always finished I turn it off and use the heat until it cools down completely.
- Use convection oven option, except for baking.
- My freezer has a lot of seasonal produce at this time of year. As time goes by and we eat it, there is a lot of air space in the freezer that is difficult to keep cold……it escapes every time we open the door. It’s then time to fill that space with ice (empty milk-type carton?). Ice does not escape when we open the door. Bonus is that in a power failure we have ice to keep foods frozen longer
- The only other things I can think of are switching to an induction cooktop and wearing clothes more than once if possible to cut down on the volume of laundry.
- Do you steam-clean or self-clean the oven? Steam is 250° for 30 to 60 minutes. Self-clean is nearly 1000° for 3 hours.
I’ve always used the self-clean but will try the steam -clean. It probably will work for most of my oven cleaning jobs and if it doesn’t, I’ll use the self-clean next time. - We have power bars for computers/printer/stereo system/game councils/tv, all those electrical that have sleep modes and that have lights even when off. I always shut down the power bars when we go away for a few days, but will try to do so more frequently and whenever we don’t use those appliances.
- Wash clothes only when visibly soiled or stinky! No need to wash jeans, sweaters and shirts after only one use….will also prolong the life of the clothes item….