“No Lights” Challenge- How’s it going?

I have been perhaps a bit too into this challenge…Heading into dark pantries to retrieve something (and I *think* I know where the item is!), using the bathroom in utter blackness . Luckily it has been a rather sunny week down here in North Carolina.

I wanted to make mention of a few things:

#1- It’s probably best to leave mini blinds and curtains closed if you won’t be in the room long, and to make sure you close them if you leave an area of the house for more than a few minutes. There is most certainly a balance here, as leaving too many open can have a negative effect on your heating bill- And I say this especially for all of our northern readers. Here in our home, we spend most of our time in the family room and kitchen, so those areas had the blinds open and lights off- The rest of the house had blinds closed and lights off. When hubby is home, the front room blinds are open as well. When I went upstairs for an hour of laundry, I opened those blinds but closed them when I left.

#2- I was reminded of an episode of “Mythbusters” I watched a few years back. They were trying to discover if it was beneficial to turn off a light every time you leave a room, or if you should leave it on, if you’d be back shortly…kinda the whole “it takes more energy to turn ON the light, so you’re saving money by leaving it on”. They found this was absolutely true if you could leave and come back to the room in less than .25 seconds. Even with fluorescent tube bulbs, you’d have to leave and come back in less than one second. HAHAHA, I loved that episode! Case in point: Turn off the light when you leave the room. Always. Unless you’re Superman…

#3- How gray and dark is it today? We had one very cloudy sad looking day last week, where there was barely and light coming in, and I could just feel the cold coming in the windows. This was NOT a good day to go “no lights”. So I closed up the windows and used the inside lights that day. I did however stick to only keeping lights on when I needed them and being sure to turn them off when I left the room.

That’s it! I’m looking forward to comparing our January electric bill to a few past ones!!

Oh, and just for my southern friends…Cut off the lights!

Here’s to living- happier, healthier, more FRUGAL lives!

~~FrugalMegan~~