Energy-saving lessons from The Littlest User 2
Posted by Guest Blogger on October 15, 2012
It was another strong season for The Littlest User contest. This year, we had 31 teams participate. Together, they saved a whopping 14,293 kWh. Check out the link on our home page to see how all the teams did.
In case you haven’t heard about The Littlest User, it’s a contest that Wright-Hennepin has held for the past two years. Households compete to see who can reduce their energy use by the largest percent compared to their use during the same time frame last year. The main goal for the contest is to have customers find easy, inexpensive ways to lower their electric bills.
We’re able to have this contest because of MyMeter – an interactive Web portal that helps our members track their energy use. Members and contestants can see on a daily basis how the changes they’ve made are affecting their usage.
This year’s winner – team Freedom – received a $1,000 travel voucher for reducing their household’s energy use by 62.9 percent. I got to meet Freedom when there was about two weeks left in the competition. It was exciting to hear all the things they did to reduce their usage, but what impressed me the most was that they didn’t spend a dime on energy-efficient light bulbs or make any other energy-saving improvements to their home. They simply changed their daily habits.
Many of team Freedom’s appliances are powered by gas, which gave them fewer opportunities to reduce their electric use. This is one example of how it’s actually an advantage in this competition if you have an all-electric home. If you have more appliances powered by electricity, you have more opportunities to save. However, in spite of this obstacle, Freedom found many other ways to cut down their usage, including using less artificial lighting and raising their thermostat.
Team Freedom encountered a few challenges throughout the competition, but overall, thought that changing their habits was well worth the amount of money they saved. One of the biggest inconveniences for the family was raising the temperature in their home to help cut down on their air conditioning use. They also said that not running their dishwasher was difficult at first, but after the first couple of weeks, they adjusted to that change as well. By the time the competition ended, they said they really didn’t find the contest to be inconvenient. They had fun participating and – of course – were pleased with all of the money they saved.
Your electric bill is what you make of it. If you take time and find ways to save energy, you’ll be amazed by how much you can save. A lot of little changes like unplugging phantom loads and turning off your TV when you leave the room can make a big difference on your bill.
If you have a creative idea that saves you energy, I’d like to hear about it. Be sure to post it in the comments section!
Do you think you could be the next littlest user? Stay in touch with Wright-Hennepin by follow us on Facebook and Twitter for other energy saving ideas, or to find out when our next contest will begin.