Conserving energy to help the environment and your utility bills is a group effort. Without the entire family involved, it’s going to be tough to keep everything going successfully and ultimately, it probably won’t work very well in the end. If everyone participates however you’re going to see much better results.
If you want something that’s a little more set in stone to start off with (rather than things that are controlled by actions), look at http://www.texaselectricityproviders.com/2011/06/electric-car-options-in-texas/ and read up on electric car trend.
Things such as electric cars, energy efficient appliances, and lower electricity rates are going to be a surefire way to keep your energy consumption at a minimum and in the case of the latter options, keeping your costs down as well. They don’t require much effort at all, which is why they’re an easy way to start your new eco-friendly lifestyle.
The problem is that old habits are very difficult to break and trying to make sure that everyone in the household is contributing is going to be a little overwhelming. Start off small and go from there, teaching your family some energy saving habits that don’t take much to implement and stick with them until they finally stick. Don’t move on to the next stage until everyone is positive they’ve passed the first grade.
Lead by example in this endeavor. Don’t tell everyone to ensure all the lights are off before they go out for the night or head to bed and yet do the exact thing you warned them against. Make sure you keep in line with what you’re teaching and own up to any mistakes you might make. Practice what you preach. If you forget to turn the bathroom light off after you’ve finished your hair, just admit that you did. It will make your family much more apt to listen to you and follow in your footsteps.
Stay committed to what you’re doing. Don’t push energy conservation one day and immediately forget all about it the next, no matter what’s going on or how weary you are of fighting with them about it. Don’t ease up because the moment you do, you’ll have backslid and you’ll need to practically start from scratch again. The only way to ensure that positive behaviors and habits are being put into place is to consistently encourage them, which means checking up on your family every day to make sure they’re following through.
It might be a tough couple of weeks (or months) as you guys try to switch everything over to a more energy efficient and eco-friendly household, but be on the look out for when things finally change around. As with everything else in the world, you’ll want to reward their efforts and successes with a little bit of celebration, whatever that means to your family.
Don’t make it all negative; reward them when they’ve finally gotten the hang of it. Plus, by showing them some positivity at the end of each stage, they’ll be much more willing to go onto the next one without a lot of complaint. It gets easier each time.
Switching your family and household over to energy efficient behaviors might be a little difficult at first, but once you stick with it and get the habits in place, it will get much easier. Just make sure that you’re following some basic guidelines and you’ll see that it really does pay off.
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