Disclaimer :: This post contains sponsored information from Reliant and is designed to bring helpful information to Fort Worth Moms readers.
As parents, we spend day after day teaching our children good habits to keep them happy, healthy, and safe. We stress washing hands, picking up toys, brushing teeth, and wearing seat belts. If we invest this much time and effort into their wellbeing, it only makes sense that we also teach them how to live wisely within a home. The big picture is teaching them how to save money on their utility bills and live a more sustainable lifestyle. Small habits today that lead to responsible living later.
Once parents do the “grown-up” decision of deciding on an energy company and plan to use, there are some way to include kiddos in the energy-saving conversation. Teach them these four easy ways they can reduce energy!
Open or Close the Blinds
Opening the blinds or curtains during the day naturally brightens the room so you don’t have to switch on lights. If it’s really warm, it can also help naturally warm the room. In the summer when it’s blazing hot, teach kids to close the blinds and curtains to block the sun’s waves and keep rooms cool. This limits how much your air conditioner has to work to keep the house comfortably chill.
Empty the Fridge
Once a month (or more), let your kids go through items in the refrigerator and decide what can be thrown out and what should be kept. You may be surprised at how many empty bottles of ketchup your fridge is working to keep cold! Decluttering a fridge also allows air to circulate inside and keeps energy consumption low. If you’re feeling really ambitious, pull the fridge out and let your kids see and clean the dusty coils. Clean coils helps your fridge run more efficiently, too.
Switch Direction of Ceiling Fans
This is no joke — it’s science! Switching the direction your fan rotates keeps warm air where you want (and don’t want)! On most fans, there is a switch on the base that changes the direction. In the summer, make sure the fan rotates clockwise, which helps push warm air down (remember how warm air rises?). In the summer, fans ought to spin to counter-clockwise, which helps create a wild chill effect when coupled with cool air from your air conditioner, to create a more comfortable enviroment.
Take Shorter Showers
There’s nothing like standing in a hot, steaming shower, and kids learn this real fast! The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a standard shower head uses up to 2.5 gallons of water per minute — that’s 20 gallons of water for an eight-minute shower! Not to mention your hot water tank has to heat that 20 gallons!
Talk with your kids and let them help decide an appropriate length of time to shower. Setting timers can be friendly reminders to lather, rinse and turn off the water.
Bonus :: Make Smart Choices
Saving energy within the house is part of Reliant’s mission. In addition to lifestyle changes, using one of Reliant’s three free time-of-use plans helps cut costs and save energy. Its three “Pick Your Free” plans are Reliant Truly Free Weekends, Free Nights, and Free 7 Days. All plans include a Google Nest Hub, at no additional cost, which allows homeowners to monitor energy use and their Reliant account (along with a ton of other fun and useful features).
- Reliant Truly Free 7 Days + Google Nest Hub offers free electricity for the seven highest usage days every monthly billing cycle. Truly Free 7 Days appeals to frequent travelers, shift workers, or stay-at-home parents who often have fluctuating schedules.
- Reliant Truly Free Weekends + Google Nest Hub offers free electricity every weekend, from 8:00 p.m. Friday to 12:00 a.m. Monday. Truly Free Weekends appeals to those who spend their weekends at home binge-watching, meal-prepping, having family and friends over, and catching up on laundry.
- Reliant Truly Free Nights + Google Nest Hub offers free electricity every night, from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Truly Free Nights appeals to those who are night owls and enjoy the simple pleasure of sleeping extra cool on warm Texas nights.
Between work schedules, after-school sports, and the types of homes we live in, every family lives differently, which is why Reliant has developed its three plans to suit all sorts of lifestyles! Some parents work nights, some moms stay at home, some families have one child, and some have 10. Regardless of what your home looks like, there is an electricity plan from Reliant to fit your needs.
Follow Reliant Energy on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Thank you for sharing. Another thing to teach your kids is to turn off the lights when leaving the room. However, it’s worth mentioning that if the incandescent lights you should turn off straight away (because they’re horribly energy inefficient), fluorescent lights can be left on for a little bit longer (about 5 minutes). This is because their operating life is shortened by how often they’re turned on and off, and the payoff of having to buy new ones is more expensive than saving them by leaving them on slightly longer.