In September I actually followed through with the idea from one of my earlier blogposts about turning off my garage freezer in order to save some money on my energy bill. Around the same time I also started rinsing my dishes with cold water before putting them in the dishwasher and the same goes with washing my hands.  The rest of our energy consumption stayed relatively the same, since this September in Florida was just as hot, if not hotter as the rest of the summer months.

One of the motivators for making this adjustment was the increase in energy bill over the prior couple of months. Usually our electric bill is under tolerable amount of $200, but in July and August of this year, it hit as high as $230. That’s when I decided to go ahead and turn off the old freezer in our hot garage. I am assuming that the freezer was on constantly, since I heard its buzzing sound every time I would pass by it, whether it was day or night. The freezer is quite old, the insulation is worn out, the poor thing had to work nonstop in order to compensate for 100 degree + temperature in our garage. And we had to pay for it!

Another thing I did, as I mentioned earlier, is I started rinsing my dishes and pots with cold water rather than warm, before putting them into the dishwasher. Same goes with washing my hands. Luckily, the “cold” water in Florida is still about 80F warm, so it was a very easy adjustment for me.

Because water has high heat capacity, meaning it takes a lot of energy to heat up, water heater is one of the largest energy consumers out of all of the household appliances. If you can reduce usage of your hot water, you can see the difference in your electric bill. If you live in colder areas, you might be able to see even greater difference in your electric bill. The downside of it is that, you’ll probably have to deal with rinsing your dishes in a 50 or 60-degree water, which may not be as easy to handle.

So when the new bill came, I was pleased. It was around $178! My husband didn’t believe me that turning off the garage freezer would make much difference, so it was nice to confirm by opinion, “See, I told you so!”

I am on the quest to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle this year. And another thing I decided to tackle is our garage freezer!  It barely has anything in it and I am positive that our fridge’s freezer will be able to handle a little extra. I think I can make it work!

Why am I doing it?

Well, obviously by turning off the freezer I will be able to eliminate a hefty source of energy consumption.  This will result in lower energy consumption, lower energy bill and less emissions from the power plant!

How much energy will I save?

Let’s see, my little freezer draws 5 amps of current and a voltage of 115 volts.  It is quite old, so assuming that it runs 50% of the time during cooler months here in Florida, I should be able to save

115V * 5A / 1000 * 30 days * 24 hrs * 50% = 207 kilowatt-hours per month of energy.

How much money will I save?

207 kilowatt-hours * $0.103 per kw-hour =  $21.32 per month

Not bad for unnecessary appliance!

What about summer months?  I’ll assume the freezer in on 75% of the time, since the temperature inside stuffy garage during Florida summer can easily reach 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. In this case I will save

310 kilowatt-hours of energy and $32 per month

Even better!  So bye bye freezer!