Our basement has a large open area that we have designated as our family room & kids play area, the couch divides the space so that one side has a computer/television focus and the other side is big and open for the girls and their friends to play with toys - with one exception: we have an elliptical machine on that side of the room to exercise on. This room also has an egress window like the guest room & my office. Since our basement was not finished when the house was built the water heater & the furnace are also in a closet facing this space.

Since we have many electrical devices by the computer and television we could use a power strip for electronics that don’t need to be on all of the time (basically everything but the DVR could be off and unplugged except for when they’re being used).

We’ll need to turn the computer off over night except for on scheduled backup nights (if you’re saving electricity but not data - you should rethink that strategy).

Replace light bulbs - not sure that CFLs will work in this room because the lights are can lights and the exposed sockets of the cans may look rather funny with CFLs. Many of our light fixtures in this house have exposed bulbs so we’re going to have to figure out how to up the efficiency without lowering the appearance. On top of that our can lights are on dimmer switches which will not work with CFL bulbs. I’ll look into lower watt bulbs at the very least to fit into the 16 sockets in the room (sixteen! That’s crazy).

We have the water heater down here and it would be good if I could get it insulated and tuned to the appropriate temperature. I don’t need to be heating the water too high. The outgoing pipes are already insulated.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 7:24 am and is filed under Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.