Electricity Usage Lowering
Looks like April has been a record month! I know the temperatures have been much more moderate which helps considerably. But I’d think a few changes we made also helped along the way:
– Greater allowable temperature fluctuations in the house. We (or at least I) have become more tolerant to temperatures ranging from 70 – 74 degrees. Less heating and less cooling requires less electricity.
– New Energy Star certified refrigerator.
– Ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom. It keeps it cooler at night so there’s less fiddling with the thermostat.
– Fewer computers. I had two extra computers running in March that I never used. Those are now powered down and stuffed in a closet.
It’ll be interesting to see how May goes. I replaced my 24-port 10/100 Nortel Baystack 350-24T switch with a green D-Link 8-port 10/100/1000 switch and have replaced a 4-port 10/100 hub and a 5-port 10/100 switch with green D-Link 5-port 10/100/1000 switches. I’m thinking removing the big 24-port switch should make a difference. It did put out a lot of heat and the fans ran all the time. It’s already 10 degrees cooler in the network closet! That should even affect the cooling bill this summer, too!
