Ease Power Consumption During Extreme Weather Events

With all the wild winter weather occurring nowadays, more than ever utility companies are asking their consumers to try to save energy during extreme weather events to prevent blackouts and brownouts. Yes, you can unplug your appliances, lower your heating or raise your air conditioning, and all the rest, but there are a few fairly easy ways to save energy that do not involve a lot of sacrifice on your part, yet will ease the burden on the power grid. So try out some of these methods, and do your part to keep the lights on!

• If you are cooking a meal on the stove, your food will heat much faster with this one little trick: cover the pot, even if later you plan to cook the food uncovered. The food will reach the proper temperature minutes faster. This also works for preheating pans, and heating oil for frying. The lid will keep the heat inside instead of letting it out into the air, so you won't be running your stove for as long.
• If you are cooking food in the oven, you can take advantage of residual heat in two ways: first, turn off your oven a few minutes early, and let the food continue to cook with the heat left over in the oven. This may take a minute or two longer to cook the food than you are accustomed to, but you have the satisfaction of knowing that you will be helping everyone by doing your part.
• The second way to take advantage of the residual heat in your oven: after you take the food out, leave the oven door open, rather than closing it. This will circulate the oven heat inside your house, keeping your house warmer and putting less strain on your heating system.
• If you have a toaster oven or air fryer oven, and your food will fit inside it, use that instead of your regular oven.
• Maintaining proper humidity in your home will also help to keep the temperature inside from falling below the dew point. Your heating system won't work so hard, and you'll be more comfortable, too! Just remember, the higher the humidity, the more warmth the air will retain.
• If you are sweltering in the summer, consider using a fan. You can put water or ice in front of the fan to keep the air even cooler. At night or early in the morning, if the weather is cooler than your thermostat preset, open your windows. And if it's just you that feels to warm, consider soaking your feet in cool water. After all, if you're too hot in bed at night, what do you do? You stick a foot out from under the covers, right?
• If you haven't already switched to LED lights, they are available nowadays at the dollar store. Even overhead fluorescents can be replaced with LEDs. LED lights will use only a tenth of the energy of incandescents, and about half the energy of fluorescents.
• And finally, you might want to consider heating up the bed, instead of heating up the bedroom. That old standby, a hot water bottle, will keep the bed toasty, while you can let the rest of the house cool down until it's time to wake up. You can even heat the water with the leftover heat from your oven, or, if you are worried about leaks, a heating pad set on low will also work. Modern heating pads have automatic shutoff timers, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to turn it off when you get up. If you have a bed canopy, draw it shut.

With these handy tips, you should be able to reduce your power consumption just the little bit extra necessary to help utility companies deal with extreme cold, and then you won't have to shiver in the dark during a brownout or blackout. You'll still be warm! If you're suffering in the summer, you can stay cool. Either way, you'll be helping to prevent a loss of electrical power for yourself and many other people. And if you make these habits, you'll be rewarded with a lower utility bill, too!