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Show Currently Speafcingfl By Moon Lake Electric Asso. Inc. Most of your utility bills will go for comfort conditioning, and that's where you can effect your greatest savings. If you've weather-stripped your home and insulated it, you'll have taken a big step in keeping your bills down. Water heating is next, and after that your savings will come in grudging little nibbles, but there are still many ways you can save energy around the house as you cook, wash clothes, and do the dishes. Of course, food preparation takes energy, and you can save by making sure your refrigerator and freezer are in good condition, especially the door gaskets. Close a piece of paper in the door and try to pull it out. If it slips out easily, your gaskets need replacement. You can save a little, too, by opening the doors as few times as possible, and a little more by defrosting regularly. It is wise to vaccume your refrigerator-freezer refrigerator-freezer coils occasionally, making sure to unplug the appliance before poking around with the crevice cleaner. The coils are usually attached to the back of a refrigerator, or in the bottom section. The kitchen range is another place where small savings can add up to big annual savings. Be sure to cook on elements that are about the same size as the pan, and certainly no larger. Incidentally, glass or ceramic cook-ware cook-ware is a little more efficient than metal. Use a tight-fitting lid, unless the recipe calls for cooking uncovered, and shut the unit off a few minutes before the food is completely cooked. Residual heat will do the rest. Ovens take a lot of current. For that reason, you'll be wise to use your oven efficiently, and bake an entire oven full of food at a time. You can store the rest for later use, being sure to cool it to room temperature before placing it in a freezer or refrigerator. Or, if you have a small countertop oven, it is more efficient if you can only bake one item anyway to bake it in the smaller oven. Probably one of the biggest mistakes people make in baking is peeking. When you open the over door, as much as a quarter of the heat is lost, the thermostat signals for more, and the oven's heating elements pull additional current. Cook by time and temperature! tem-perature! Be sure to preheat only a few minutes, and you can turn the oven off a few minutes before the cooking time is up: With a large roast, you can shut the oven off -as much as 30 minutes before cooking time is up, if you can resist the temptation to peek. These energy conservation measures won't spell the difference between wealth and poverty, but they will save you a few dollars a year, and they'll help conserve valuable natural resources, too. |