Cutting Back On Power Usage In Your Home

As the heat hangs on, eastern Oklahoma's power grid is seeing near-record demands for electricity. <br/><br/>PSO has been asking its customers to conserve electricity. Those who do cut back should

Tuesday, August 8th 2006, 10:34 am

By: News On 6

As the heat hangs on, eastern Oklahoma's power grid is seeing near-record demands for electricity.

PSO has been asking its customers to conserve electricity. Those who do cut back should see the savings on their electric bill.

News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says appliances that create or remove heat use the most electricity.

An electric oven is one of the biggest offenders, pulling around 5,000 watts. Experts say since you have to run appliances like your refrigerator, think of other places to cut back.

Since an average clothes dryer uses as much electricity as an oven, it might be a good idea to air dry your laundry.

You can save three to seven times the power by cooling rooms you're in with a window unit, instead of central air conditioning. For instance, if a single person just air-conditioned their bedroom while they slept, they'd save money.

And hardware expert Rich Womack says one of the sneakiest power drains is the light bulb. But he says 100 watts here and another 60 there can quickly add up. "A light bulb is rated at 60 watts. Well, you could buy a compact fluorescent light bulb that pulls the same amount of light, but only pulls about 13 watts of electricity. You could change those out and save a lot during the year."