If you're using a traditional (not a heat pump) electric heater at home on a thermostat, just about everything else in your house that uses electricity can be used for free.
That's because almost every other appliance that you use ends up dumping the energy it uses into heat in your home, thereby taking load off of the heater. Have a computer that uses 200 watts to run? Leave it on. Those 200 watts all end up as heat, and it takes 200 watts of load off of your electric heater for a net use of 0 watts.
Same thing for a TV. You can just leave it on without worrying about using electricity. Sure, with the TV and with lights, a little bit of energy escapes your home in the form of light. But the vast majority of the energy used by them is turned into heat and dumped in your home.
It's even true for your refrigerator and freezer. Trying to close your fridge door quickly so you don't let the cold air out? Take your time instead. The compressor has to work to re-chill the air in the fridge, but it heats up when it does this, dumping that heat into your home and taking load off the electric heater.
Part of being frugal is knowing where you can indulge without cost!
This does not apply if you use a heat pump, or you use gas or oil heating, or if you pay a separate rate for electricity for heating.
Submitted November 19, 2014 at 04:06AM by mrdeke http://ift.tt/1uFwobO Frugal
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