Almost all of the other “savings”, such as, lower wattage lights, turning off the TV when not being watched, and the others are really insignificant.

So, what is the major part of the electric bill? It is the “motors” of your house. These “reactive loads” are the air conditioner, refrigerator, washer, dryer, dishwasher, and perhaps others.

The Department of Energy said in 1997 that these motor loads were about 40% of the total electric bill of an average house. Radiant heat, such as electric hot water heaters, electric space heaters etc. made up much of the rest. Please don’t use radiant heat unless you have to.

So the term “light bill” is not very true.

The Power Factor

How can we reduce motor load part of our bill? The key is “power factor” and there are devices available to greatly improve it. By improving the “power factor” these motors use much less electricity and have much better efficiency. They run cooler (another benefit) and thus last longer as well.

Power Surge Protection

These devices that improve “power factor” generally provide power surge protection from lightning strikes and power line spikes as well. To be effective it must be installed at the circuit box to protect the entire house. They are not all created equal and it is usually advised that a trusted electrician be consulted before buying one and though it is a simple installation it must be done by a certified electrician.

A good device is worth the investment. Many electronic items IN YOUR HOME as well as their motors can be damaged by power surges.

But the problem of hard water is the scale that it leaves behind especially in hot water systems, such as the hot water tank, dishwasher, shower heads, piping, faucets etc. This scale is almost impossible to remove and especially shortens the life of the hot water tank as well as increasing the energy needed to heat the water. Scale is a great insulator, the last thing we need, plus it constricts the openings and the pipes.

Hard water can be handled in basically two ways: an ion exchanger, a “softener” that exchanges the calcium ion in the water for a sodium or potassium ion. This usually eliminates the scale but has the attendant problems of the sodium or potassium ions in the water and adding the salt to the “softener”.

The most common other way is to create an electric or magnetic field that basically drives the calcium ion to form a particle or colloid. The intensity of the electric field is the key and if the water is quite hard most of these systems do not work. However, there are systems that do work and these offer the advantage of being “green” in that no chemicals or salts are introduced and thus do not cause a problem for waste treatment.

Hard water is not a problem for taste but should not be ignored since the most prevalent scale location, the hot water tank, is not visible. If the heating elements are electrical, it is strongly recommended that hardness be treated regardless of how hard the water is. It will greatly increase the life of the tank and reduce the electric bill considerably.

Sources are germs on surfaces, dust, mold, mites, smoke, odors, allergens and many more. Filters handle only dust. Purifiers use ozone, ionic interactions, ultra violet rays, and electrostatic techniques to kill germs and cause other air problems to become colloidal and drop from the air. Filters remove gross dirt but purifiers will remove small particles.

Regardless of the quality of the filter used, a person can see small dust particles in bright sunlight floating in the air. That is not so with a quality purifier. Purifiers kill almost all living organisms and remove inorganic (non living) particles from the air. Combined, a good filter and a good air purifier remove almost all air problems.