Frugality: Your Electric Bill, Part 2

There's an easy way to save on your winter electric bill that doesn't require you to change your lifestyle, and not only that, it will protect you, your family, your pets, your plants, your wood furniture, your musical instruments, and your electronics! It doesn't require a big investment of either time or money.

You've heard, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity!" in the summer. Winter air tends to be much drier than summer air, and it works the same way humidity in the summer does: that is, 70 degrees at 50% humidity is a lot warmer-feeling than 70 degrees at 20% humidity. In addition, with higher humidity, you will lose heat from your air more slowly than with lower humidity, meaning your heater will come on less frequently.

The process is easy: buy a cheap humidity monitor, and keep your indoor relative humidity between 45-55%. You'll cut down on static shocks, protect your delicate respiratory passages, and lose less heat from contraction of wood in your building. In addition, you'll also reduce your fire danger on dry days!

There are several ways you can increase your indoor humidity. The easiest is to buy a humidifier, and you can find one relatively cheaply at garage or moving sales. You can also increase your humidity by cooking, opening the dishwasher and letting the dishes air dry, air-drying your laundry indoors, misting your plants (you were going to do that anyway, right?), setting out shallow pans of water to evaporate, or taking a shower and leaving the bathroom door open (and not running the exhaust fan).