Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

[flamingchicken]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

You could seal coat the roof with trans-x, that would restore the trailer to its original condition!

that is the second smartest thing i have ever heard anyone say about anything...

Im not a manwhore...im a whore for the ladies....

OP-sorry i could not contribute any sort of good info, my idea of saving on utilities is to shower together and sit in the dark whenever possible.

[nimrod.sixty9]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

Paint the roof white. If the AC units are yours, know that the new(er) ones are more efficient than ones made just 5 years ago. Same goes with other appliances. If your electric water heater has more then one heating element, make sure they are both working, the heating elements are easy to replace. Use the new screw in florescent bulbs to replace incandescent bulbs.

Roof is white, its some kind of sealant. A/C 1 is less than a year old and the other looks to be fairly new. This hot water heater is about 2 feet tall LOL.

You could seal coat the roof with trans-x, that would restore the trailer to its original condition!

You will never let it die will you? LOL
There is no help for this place :D

I have done alot of power saving stuff with a commercial building and do alot in my house. (3 bed, 2 bath house, highest bill in FL was last @$200, lowest was $80, and I like my house cool)

Raise the temp on water heater, sounds bad but you will get used to it, if you shower it needs to be on FULL hot.

LED bulbs are better then CFLs, but cost alot, a few CFLs will be nice, but honestly in a trailer, how many lights you have running at a time? 2-3 I mean **** my house we don't have that many lights at any given time.


Your killers are water heater/AC... With Ac, get a timer going on them for when you are not around. I have a progammable thermostat on our AC, cost $50, for window units I think they have outlet style timers.

Mixed feelings on water heater, timers... for like $2 you can get insulator for the hot water piping. Maybe a hot water heater blanket. Your insulation is going to kill you... no getting around it.

Rent may be cheap.... but I hate to say it, there is a thing to be said about Programing the poor to stay poor. You think you save on rent, but you pay even more on utilities/upkeep.


My house is sealed well, well insulated, and fully tiled(makes a HUGE difference) at retaining the cold. Sucks in winter though, stays cold indoors, but its FL so not badt. Sure my rent is higher but my utilities are actually lower then apartments I live in.

$1100 a month rent, maybe $180 month water/power/garbage bills. ~$1300 a month

Orlando was looking at $900-1000 rent, but like $200-250ish a month utilities. ~$1200-1250 for apartment.

But I have bigger house, a yard for my dog, and a 2 car garage and some actual privacy.

Im lost, why would the heat need to be up? Its already enough to scald your hand off.

Running CFLs through the place now, so I at least have one step done :D

I think the A/Cs do have timers.

Rent is 460 - Lights 50 ~ 150 - Water free - Garbage free

Not sure what your fan situation is, but fans help, and I learned working in un AC'ed hangers and work areas in FL, Fan placement works... Even in sealed rooms with no outside. Aiming fans to do a "circulation" of the room. Like if you have 2-3 fans, instead of blowing on you its better to have them in corners rotating the air around the entire room in a circular fashion.

My house wasn't wired for ceiling fans(if I owned it frist thing I would do) So I have tower fans, like $40 a piece but with them on, I can keep the house ~3* higher on AC, but still comfortable, wife wears a blanket(sometimes I do) when watching TV. ~74 in house.

Running two box type fans. Ceiling is too low for those fans LOL


Thanks for the input guys

[ssms5411]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

Your lucky on the water and garbage,ours is around $85 thats with drip system front back and basic for garbage/recycle is $50 a month so we use $35 a month in water, Dish is $90, qwest another $65 with high speed internet/phone, and the damm A/C is what kills us I hope we stay under $300 from now on and it was just the bad A/C unit going out and needed fixed. Also covering the A/C units from the sun is suppose to be good like a sun shade, which I still need to get for ours since the afternoon sun beats down on it. Floor fans are nice. Are dogs are spoiled like the one in my Avitar won't go outside unless the need to do their stuff, because of the heat, but in winter their outside all the time, crazy dogs.LOL

[Dwax13]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

for the windows you could use saran wrap for insulation its alot cheeper than tint

[94Firebird34]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

Well I would suggest if it is owned a well planned fire. And then build a house with insurance proceeds. This would not only solve the issues you currently have but all so allow you to add newer more efficeint appliances. But that is only a suggestion. Failing the well planed fire sell the place and move. If it is rented Move.

[nimrod.sixty9]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

Ok I put up aluminum foil on the end windows. Try not to flame... It actually came out looking like tint from the out side and the inside has blinds...

Ive also used that foam in a can stuff to seal up a LOT of cracks.

Next to clean out the AC from the outside...

[RPDRed6]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

gotta use the efficiency bulbs, saved us like 60-70 bucks last year

[steddy]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

gotta use the efficiency bulbs, saved us like 60-70 bucks last year

Done that one myself. The florescents really saved some cash each month.

[Tom Rs]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

cook with a bbq so u dont need the oven

[Mogobs30th]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

lol im surprised its still in living condition then being that old. usually after about 20 years theyre torn to hell and on the verge of collapsing.

Our summer home is a mobile home on Lake Shafer in NW Indiana. It was a 1960 model, still in immaculate condition even after 50 years. Bad thing is the furnace ran on heating oil, and the tank has been removed, and the central AC unit is gone. Its been sitting in the same place since 1976.

cook with a bbq so u dont need the oven

We actually do this ALOT. Because our stove is electric in the apartment, its always been cheaper to cook alot of the food we eat on the grill, even in the dead cold of winter. We go thru about 4 tanks of gas a year, if not more, cooking on the thing. Saves quite a bit of money compared to running the stove and oven. As for running the AC, thicker blinds on the windows, and keeping them closed during the day will help with the sun beating into the place, and although you probably don't want to invest in things like that, I have myself, and I will take them with me when I leave here.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

for the windows you could use saran wrap for insulation its alot cheeper than tint

You can buy shrink wrap for windows. You put it up with tape and then hit it with a hair dryer. It shrinks down and works amazingly well to block drafts.

You can also get light blocking curtains. They are so thick, they block all sunlight. Would work much better than tint, especially on the sides of the house that get a lot of sun.

[nimrod.sixty9]

Re: Ideas on saving on the electric bill?

Damn, to late for the shrink wrap. Already used foam in a can. Good idea though.

Used aluminum foil on the windows that let in all the sun (end windows). Used a spray bottle with soap and water and it came out quite nice.

UPDATE: Cleaned one AC from the outside. Used coil cleaner and the water hose... ANd holy crap at all the shtuff that came outta there! Cools quite a bit better. Hard to tell if its the foil or the clean AC but its damn sure colder in here :D

Bill came in... $20 higher :(