Electrical New Year's Resolutions

When you think of New Year’s resolutions, you don’t often think of anything besides exercise, weight loss, and professional goals. Most people think in short-term goals, rather than establishing a long-term lifestyle shift. Oftentimes these changes can be drastic, and as a result, end up being rather short-lived.

It’s time to redefine New Year’s resolutions.

Instead of setting short-term goals that are destined to fail, consider choosing one area of your life in which you can improve. For instance, take electric consumption. Instead of trying to go off the grid or completely shift to solar, how about adjusting your lifestyle to simply improve your electric habits. It’s easier than it may seem.

Here are three simple ways you can shift your energy lifestyle:

1) Turn off the Lights
Yes, it may seem obvious, but turning off the lights when you leave a room goes a long way towards saving energy. A simple memory trick, such as clapping when you turn off the lights when you leave a room or spinning around once after you’ve completed the task could improve your consistency, as these abnormal activities may break the monotony enough to remind you to turn out the lights.

2) Change to Energy-Efficient Lighting
Enough with the traditional light bulbs used in old homes. It’s time to go modern. Changing to LED lighting could help the environment, all while helping your bottom line when it comes to your utility bill.

3) Unplug
We all have that one device that we just leave in at all times, ready to turn it on and start operating it at a moment’s notice. Whether it be a laptop charger, TV set, or treadmill, that electronic simply never is unplugged, and is constantly using energy as a result. Next time you see something plugged in that isn’t in use, simply unplug it until you are ready to power back up. Your utility bill will thank you.