Creating energy saving habits is a good idea. As you know, habits can be hard to break. This means that once you establish an energy saving habit, you will get into the zone where you practice these habits automatically. Saving energy and money, too, will be effortless.
Set Reminders
At first, you’ll need to remind yourself and the other members of your family to practice good energy saving habits. One way to do this is to set reminders all around the house. You can do this with sticky notes or paper and painter’s tape.
Some reminders that you want to post include shutting the blinds, shades or curtains during the day to keep the heat out in the summer, signs next to light switches or on the doors of rooms reminding everyone to shut off the lights when they leave, a note by the bathroom sink to turn off the water and not let it run while you are brushing your teeth, and unplug major appliances when they are not in use.
Get Everyone on Board
Creating new energy saving habits is a team effort. You will be setting yourself up for failure if you don’t get everyone on board with the program to save energy.
It is helpful to sit everyone down and explain your goals and reasons for creating these new energy saving habits. Maybe you want to be more responsible with your resources, or maybe you want to save money. Either way, having a tangible goal or reward for all of your efforts can help.
Keep track of your energy savings and translate that into something concrete. For example, you could look at your energy bill and designate any money that you save into a vacation account or a savings account for something that the family wants to have. You could also calculate how many trees you’ve saved or how your efforts are making the planet a better place.
While energy savings habits won’t happen overnight, with repeated practice they will eventually become effortless.