How To Get Your Kids Involved In Cutting Your Energy Bills

By: Graham Tasker

Maintaining a household has never been more difficult considering the escalating costs of many utilities. Not only do you have to worry about the food you need to serve everyday but you also have to plan a strategy to pay for the household utilities consumed by your family. Chief amongst these are utilities such as electricity, gas and water.

It probably won't come as a surprise to you to be told that your children contribute quite significantly to the bottom line of your home's utility bills. Let's face it, most of their means of entertainment these days are consumers of energy. Accepting this, it makes perfect sense that you need to get your children onside if you wish to cut your utility costs and in so doing, do your bit towards helping the planet.

Most kids seem to spend much more time than is good for them playing video games these days. I bet your household has at least one video games console and probably also a personal computer that your children play games on. One of the things you can do to help cut back on your household energy consumption is to keep control of when your kids are allowed to play their computer games. Don't let them play whenever they feel like it, impose some set hours. Don't forget that if they use a games console it will probably also need the TV to be on too - using a double dose of electricity.

A suggested computer game-playing timetable is to impose a limit of a couple hours on weekdays and, say, four hours at weekends. To help with this imposition it's a good idea to stipulate that no playing of computer games will be allowed until homework and chores have been completed.

Another thing you should do is ask your kids to unplug their electronic gadgets when not in use, as these devices eat up electricity even when in stand-by mode. This practice can also have the desirable side effect of encouraging them to tidy things away after use.

Another precious resource you should encourage your kids to take care of is water. This can done by limiting the use of the shower or the bathtub. Try to use a medium-sized container for kiddie baths instead of the shower to help control consumption. While it is certainly fun to splash around in the bathtub, remember you need at least 25 gallons of water to fill up a stardard-sized tub. Limit use of the tub during weekends.

And whilst we're on the subject of conserving water, it may surprise you to learn that an amazing amount can be wasted during the simple act of teeth brushing. You should take steps to encourage your children to turn off the tap whilst in the action of brushing their teeth and only to turn it back for the duration of rinsing the tooth brush. They should also be told to only use a small cup of water for gargling.

Individually, all of the above might be thought to have a small impact on minimizing your utility bills and helping to conserve energy, but collectively, over time, they can have a significant effect. They will also instill discipline and proper stewardship qualities in your children and that can only be good for the future of our beautiful planet.

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If you're looking for a new energy conservation idea then Graham Tasker, the Webmaster of Green Home Website at www.greenhome.no1-source.com has plenty that you'll find interesting and informative.
This and other unique content energy conservation articles are available with free reprint rights.

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