DIY How to Cut Electric Bill in Half: Part 1 Free Ideas | Missouri Wind and Solar

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hi everybody this is Jeff from Missouri wind and  solar and this is part one a series of videos I   want to do how to cut your electric bill in half  or at least up to 30 percent I'm not going to   sell you anything there's no the ebooks to buy or  anything to purchase from me this is just totally   free information and things you can do yourself to  cut your electric bill by up to as much as half a   lot of people have already done it responded to  me and said they've actually cut their electric   bill 30 to 50 percent and these are just things  that I have picked up over the years and I used   to be an appliance repairman for about 25 years  so I know a lot about appliances and I'll start   by showing you some of the fastest ways you can  cut your electric bill in half by yourself whether   you go wind or solar or whether you don't  want to go wind or solar at all but before   you decide to go wind or solar the best thing  to do is to get your electric bill down first   and that's what I'm going to show you how to do  you won't need as much equipment you won't need   nowhere near as much equipment so what I'm going  to do is start out with a lot of basic stuff that   people probably already know and I know a lot of  you don't know so I'll just start and show you   some ideas there's actually several different  showerheads out there on the market and I'll   tell you why you might want to change from the  one that you've got now to another one and for   instance this is typical showerhead this uses 10  gallons of water per minute this is water saver   showerhead and this uses one and a half gallons of  water okay the difference is but this one is going   to get you just as clean as this one this this is  the one that I use in our house and it's made by   peerless and it pulsates it puts up high pressure  this one doesn't okay here's what's gonna happen   if you switch from this showerhead immediately  and any of you can do this this is one and a   half gallons per minute it's what's gonna happen  you start taking a shower big complaint I ran out   of hot water well think about it this showerhead  is using ten gallons per minute of your hot water   alright as soon as you start taking a shower  your water heater kicks on your water heater   is probably the biggest consumer of electricity  in your home now you get rid of this go to the   1.5 gallon per minute and your water heater will  hardly turn on at all you will not need a larger   water heater that's something else that people  complain about i need a larger water heater no   you don't you're dumping too much water think  about it two five-gallon pails water with this   per minute one and a half gallons with this head  okay if you've got water well and you decide you   want to keep this showerhead not only is your  water well going to kick on and off and kick   on and off but your water heater is going to  be running constantly trying to keep up with   the water usage you have there you go go to this  head your water well pump will run very little   saving you electricity right off the bat and  they're not cheap to run cut down on your water   heater electric what we've got here is regular  incandescent bulb this bulb is 75 Watts pretty   much when you turn it on its going to use 75 watts  immediately now here we've got another light bulb   these are the compact fluorescents now if you get  the wrong type of compact fluorescents it's going   to put off an orange light and I never get those I  get the soft white or I get the natural day light   compact fluorescents this is equal this bulb here  is equal to say a 60 watt incandescent light bulb   remember when you turn this on you're going to  be using 60 watts this incandescent is 13 watts   okay so you're going to be able to run about  five of these light bulbs to one incandescent now then you want to get even a cheaper light  bulb to operate this is an LED light bulb and I   got this thing and it works beautiful I mean it's  nice this is cheaper to run than the incandescent   and this one here uses 10 watts 10 watts is all  it does to equal a 60 watt bulb right this LED   will last for years so can you imagine this you  turn out one of these bulbs in your house just   one room say you're using 60 watts you can  have five of these turned on using the same   amount of power you can have roughly eight of  these turned on at the same time and I know if   you've got kids they all run through the rooms  and leave lights on you can run 8 of these for   the cost of this you see how these costs more  well your electric bill cost a lot more than   the bulbs do now you want to see something even  cheaper I don't have the bulb just the box but   check this out this is a new LED that I've just  got and this led is cheaper to run than this   LED I mean let me tell you about a little bit  this LED is designed to last 30 years it uses   five watts it equals a 60 watt light bulb  can you imagine that this uses five watts you can run 150 watt incandescent light bulb one  of these I should take this out of the box this is   an incandescent regular light bulb you can run ten  of these new LEDs to one of these lights in your   house can you imagine how much your electric bill  will drop if say you're really not even turning   on lights anymore so this is a nice bulb it's been  tried and tested it's infinity LED and you can use   this in a dimmer this one can be dimmed now a lot  of them cannot now to give you an example what I'm   talking about with the compact fluorescents this  one here that I'm pointing at right now has an   orange tint to it kind of an orange yellowish tint  well that's a that is a cheap compact fluorescent   light bulb that you get at Walmart and that's  the color puts out it's horrible now next to   it it's a natural light compact fluorescent bulb  natural daylight and is extremely bright puts up a   really beautiful white light it's not that orange  horrible color that people say they can't stand if   you'll notice the difference in the lenses one is  lit up white on the left and the one on the right   is that yellow tint you want to cut your electric  bill even further a standard vacuum cleaner when   you turn it on uses 20 amps and that is 20 amps  what we use in my house most of the time is   called an iRobot this one here is a B-robot it's  a knockoff of the iRobot plugs into a wall outlet for this b-bot sells for about 90 bucks pretty neat yeah this uses virtually nothing to  operate the irobot that I've got has a base and   what it does before the battery dies the irobot  will go back to its base Park itself and recharge   it won't die this one you have to plug into a  wall outlet and you know it's 90 some dollars   100 bucks but it actually does the job now if  you got a real thick carpeting or something   no good but it's enormous difference on  your electric bill using one of these the low brush on the side it'll figure out  this wall and start going along your wall first zigzag back and forth this thing  will go underneath the beds dressers   you turn it on when you leave your home  and come back and your house is clean it saves a lot of electricity this is going to  immediately start saving you money in the winter   and in the summer this is bubble wrap all it is  used for packing we use it here in the shop all   the time just got these large bubbles on it all  right what's the idea for the bubble wrap you   can pick this stuff up for free go to a furniture  place they wrap up furniture couches chairs and   all that sort of stuff for this bubble wrap now  these are about 1 inch balls that's what you want   the big bubbles you throw this stuff away in  the dumpsters all the time what you do cut it   to size to fit your window spray some water on the  window just a spray bottle stick it on and you got   instant savings this thing is going to keep the  wintertime it's going to keep the cold air from   coming through your windows and I guarantee ya  it really works it will stop the cold air that   comes through your windows in the house which of  course turns your furnace on which means you burn   it up even more juice and using up your heating  fuel now in the summertime stick this bubble wrap   on your windows you don't have to put all of them  it's almost transparent you can still see through   it now in the summertime your air conditioner  same thing windows in your house hot as hell   cut this to fit to Windows zap it up all of a  sudden you won't feel any heat coming through   the windows at all and your air conditioner will  run a lot less trust me I did this and all of it   is in my house been doing it for years it works  if you don't want to put it in a living room I   know where you look out looking out don't put it  in all the other windows that you don't use and   I guarantee that it's gonna cut your electric  bill down and this stuff is virtually free or   you can go pay for it I'll show you how it works  here's the window we're gonna do this is really   easy and to make it square to cut my bubble wraps  square I just got a cardboard box that's all you   can lay this on the bubble wrap and start your  lines get it nice and square before you put it   up maybe you don't want it for you don't let  that bubble wrap to come up on the wood at all   because it will fall off so you want to make  sure it's all just inside of the wood frame on   the glass don't let it roll up because it will  fall off 26X19 - using black marker works best okay remember you want to make this a little bit under  now just simply cut I just use pair of scissors   don't worry you're going to cut into some of those  bubbles that's okay bubble wrap all cut you want   to put the flat side of the bow wrap to the window  just take a mister bottle get some water in it and   just mist the entire glass all the way the whole  thing okay it's nicely misted don't let it dry they go just snug it up against the glass these  bubbles are going to expand it's hot outside right   now they're going to expand there you go we're  done it's that easy this is definitely going to   cut your heating bill down a lot temperature from  the glass up above you can feel the heat coming in   down here you can feel nothing this is definitely  gonna save you heating cooling yeah just to show   you about how transparent it is you go you can  still see through it and it's gonna stay hook   they're stuck with that water easily there's  a little close-up nice done there you go it's   all done it doesn't look bad at all does it the  next thing about this bubble that unlike a lot   of other window treatments you know the stuff  you put on your glass you take a blow dryer to   heat it up and all of that that's stuff you end  up throwing away this bubble wrap peels right   off the glass roll it up use it next year you  can keep using it over and over and over mean   you don't have to buy this stuff again phantom  loads around your house what are they they're   electronic appliances they're transformers you  know the black square boxes that are on the end   of several appliances they plug into a wall outlet  well that little square black box is always using   power whether using the item it's hooked up or  not does it call phantom loads of the digital   display in your microwave is always using power  I have a microwave that's running 20 watts all   the time used or not used I mean not used it is  taking 20 watts it's as if you're turning a one   light bulb on in your house and leaving it on  24 hours a day seven days a week that's what   that microwaves using so what you want to do is  identify all of the phantom loads now this item   right here is fantastic I have sold tons of these  and while you can buy them anywhere I'm not trying   to sell you one it's a kilowatt meter and what  it does is plugs into your wall outlet you plug   in your appliance to it and it will give you the  usage of that appliance it will say exactly what   that appliance is using how many watts how many  volts and how many amps that appliance is using   you'll be amazed buy one of these things take it  around your house unplug your television set plug   this into the wall outlet plug your TV back in  and you'll be surprised your TV is sitting there   drawing 15 watts it's called a startup circuit  warm-up circuit and a lot of television sets and   what that circuit is designed to do is being  ready mode all the time so when you hit the   power button on your television set you have an  instant-on well most of the TVs that have that   and I used to be a TV repairman at a television  shop that power circuit is using power all the   time just so you can get your TV on within seconds  of hitting the power button plug this into a wall   outlet plug your TV in see what it's drawing but  it's drawing 15 watts unplug your television set   okay do this with your microwave plug in your  refrigerator everything in your house and you   will see what is you okay let's say you've got a  lot of components hooked up like I do up my house   i got my TV VCR or DVD player like that and i  have it all plugged into a power strip I flip   the switch off on the power switch power strip  what we're not using any of that stuff and I'm   saving electricity and it doesn't hurt your TV  doesn't hurt your DVD player if you got old VCR   doesn't hurt any of that stuff but most of that  equipment is using electricity all the time and   you wonder why is your electric bill so big no  matter what you do you can't get it down it's a   lot of it is these phantom loads hook up a power  strip when you're not using your microwave you   say you don't even using it for days unplug it  our television set or I mean our washing machine   for instance at a digital display that washing  machine was using 15 or 20 Watts I don't quite   remember all the time just setting dead so my  wife started unplugging the washing machine   she says that I'm not even gonna do laundry  for 3 or 4 days but there it sets add up the   Phantom loads and what you've got is basically  several lights turned on in your house 24 hours   a day seven days a week doesn't hurt them a bit  okay this is a really tiny microwave we're just   using the store and I've got the kilowatt meter  plugged into it just plug the end of an outlet and   let's see what it's using using 1.9 actually it's  using 2 watts there you go it's using 2 watts now notice there's an amp there's the wattage push  watts ok there we go choosing actually 2.4 watts   amps just .02 to hardly anything at all you want  to see the out this outlet is 123 volts you can   even use the Hertz button on it 60 Hertz there  you going back to the microwave this is what it's   using off 2 watts all the time just add these up  and it makes a difference all right ceiling fans   in the summertime looking up at the ceiling fan it  turns counterclockwise in the wintertime if you're   looking from the floor up it turns clockwise and  the summertime or keep it on like the second speed   most everybody sets their ceiling fans for the  wrong speed so remember counterclockwise for   the summertime and usually on low that's one or  the medium speed something else get the biggest   ceiling fan that you can purchase don't be cheap  don't buy the little fans don't buy the three   blade fans they're junk they won't do anything  for you get a 52 inch fan I usually get hunter   ceiling fans for my whole house they make no noise  whatsoever and they don't vibrate and a ceiling   fan is gonna save you a huge amount of money on  heating and cooling if you use the ceiling fan   right and most people don't know which direction  they turn it but are supposed to turn it so I have   done this I have taken the switch on the ceiling  fan so nobody can make a mistake the W stands for   winter and the S stands for summer okay so this  is the idea this wintertime right now we'll say   I have the fan looking from the floor up turning  clockwise once you figure that out put in W on   the switch I have a set for the low not medium or  high and the wintertime I keep my ceiling fans on   low all the time going any faster will cool off  the air in your house and I see this happen all   the time so what's happening is this the blades  are pushing the hot air across your ceiling and   down the wall across the floor up to the middle  of the room and back up to the ceiling they're   drawing the cold air from the floor back up into  the ceiling fan and most of the heat in your room   is trapped at the ceiling you don't want to use  the summertime setting and turn the blades and   reverse if you do you're gonna cool off that hot  air from the ceiling so the idea is the ceiling   fan will push the hot air across the ceiling  to an exterior wall that's where your window   is and that's the coldest wall in your house  and it will push the hot air down that wall   and actually you warm it up and it will push the  cold air out into the middle of the floor back to   the ceiling fan and just the exact is opposite  in the summertime for cooling okay now that   you know the proper use of a ceiling and we're  gonna take you to heat and why do you feel all   those cold drafts in the house when your furnace  shuts off seems like it just can't ever get warm   enough and you keep turning the thermostat  higher and higher and higher furnace comes   on everything feels good you're nice and warm  shuts off all of a sudden you're getting a cool   feeling or draft feels like a draft but there's no  drafts coming from anywhere well what's happening   is there's no humidity in your air it is very  difficult and almost impossible for the heat to   hold in air where there is no humidity the only  way to get that heat to stay in the air after   your furnace is shut off is to get humidity into  your air people don't understand how this works   and it's done with a humidifier and I have two  humidifiers in my house it's a little over a   thousand square feet I think it's around 1,200  square feet and I use a couple of humidifiers   in the house I keep the humidity set to 55 percent  in the house that is a beautiful temperature now a   lot of things are going to happen when you get  the humidity correct in your house first get a   humidifier keep adjusting it until you get that  humidity in your house is about 55% but get your   humidity in your house about 55 percent when your  furnace shuts off the cold air is not gonna be   happening you're gonna feel nice and comfortable  no matter where you walk in your house no more   cold drafts the humidity in the air is holding  the heat after the furnace shuts off yeah well   you've got extremely dry air in your house and  we used to live in Arizona very dry air out there   when that furnace shuts off within 10 minutes it  was back on the air of so dry no humidity in it   just wouldn't hold the heat so as soon as this  off heats gone yeah we got a humidifier in our   house got it up to 55 percent the furnace would  come on shut off wouldn't come back on for 35   minutes now that is one hell of an electric  bill reduction right there this is what I'm   trying to get your electric bill down cut it to  50% even 30% that's really easy to do I mean a   lot of people have done it I've done this video  before and it was lost was taken down so this is   a remake of that original video and since then  I've gotten tons and tons of emails that said   it couldn't believe it man I mean our electric  bill has been cut 30% that was the average 30%   is quite a bit see if you've got a $500 a month  electric bill and there's a lot of people that   do now I'm going to show you a humidifier okay  here we go this is a standard humidifier and   then same amount of power right here do 800  square feet easy pretty simple front open you   fill this one with water it's about five gallons  water you put into it a couple filters down there   and there's the controls we usually leave ours on  medium all the time this one has two fans you can   have one run fan one you can use one fan or even  use both now this is typically where I set my dial here'd be the minimum amount of humidity and  the maximum and I usually leave it right here   three quarters the way up and it turns out to  be about fifty five percent the house well there   you go I have several more parts of this how  to cut your electric bill and half free ideas   so I'll be covering the appliances how to set  your water heater perfect I mean getting your   refrigerator set right cleaning and make sure  that all of your appliances are working properly   so that they cut your electric bill if your  appliances aren't working correctly trust me   they're going to eat up your electric bill  so there will be several parts this is part   one of how to cut your electric bill in half  free ideas and I'm Jeff at Missouri wind and   solar and stay tuned on part two I'll have  part 2 out pretty soon thank you everybody
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Channel: Missouri Wind and Solar
Views: 1,752,393
Rating: 4.8323636 out of 5
Keywords: solar, pv, alternative energy, windmax, free, electricity, electric, green, clean, MissouriwWindandSolar, Missouri wind and solar, How-to (Conference Subject), cut your electric bill, in half, ideas, diy, Do It Yourself (Hobby), cheap, wind turbine, generator, greenpowerscience, pma, axial flux, Power, Photovoltaics (Industry), Solar Energy (Industry), vawt, MW&S, missouri, Help, Home Improvement (Interest), How-to (Website Category), Wind Power (Industry), turn your meter backwards, mwands.com
Id: KzIY4g6s1Dw
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Length: 28min 34sec (1714 seconds)
Published: Tue May 14 2013
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