Frugal family tips to save money on energy bills
Advice on how to change your habits and cut your costs.
— -- When looking for ways to cut home energy costs, it helps to disregard some things your mother told you. You do not, for example, need to wash your clothes in hot water to get them clean, says Steve Luxton, a home energy auditor for CMC Energy in Fort Washington, Pa.
And turning off the lights when you leave a room doesn't hurt, Luxton says, but the overall reduction in your energy costs will be minimal. If you really want to slash your energy bills, he says, get rid of that avocado-green fridge in the basement. While old refrigerators provide a good way to store your beer and Costco purchases, they're huge energy wasters, he says.
On the other hand, if your mother insisted that you wear a sweater in the house, she was on to something. Because heating and cooling accounts for 50% of the typical household's energy costs, turning down your thermostat by even 1 or 2 degrees can make a big difference in your monthly bill, Luxton says.
For this month's Frugal Family Challenge, USA TODAY and ABC's Good Morning America Weekend have challenged two families to cut their home energy bills. Both families live in Smyrna, Del., and spend more than $500 a month on heating and electricity in the wintertime.
Both families live in houses that are about 5 years old, so their homes are already fairly energy efficient. But that doesn't mean they can't cut costs, Luxton says. The typical family can reduce energy bills by 10% to 20% just by changing their habits, he says.
Here's a look at the families participating in this month's challenge:
The Wattays
The Wattays spend $650 to $700 a month on heat and electricity in the winter, and it's not hard to see why.
Molly, 34, and Dana, 44, have four children: Benjamin, 14; Jessica, 12; Cameron, 11; and Spencer, 5 months. That adds up to a lot of dirty clothes: Molly estimates that she and Dana do about 10 loads of laundry a week.
Dana's mother lives with the Wattays and has a room in their finished basement. Molly's home office is also in the basement, so they use a space heater to keep the chill off. The Wattays also use a space heater in their family room.
