Photo of me fall 2001 in the N. Georgia Mountains
We had our first breakfast meeting this morning for our Christians Should be Prosperous: Tips for Saving $ and Practical Living.
WOW! What an amazing informative and over all incredible session. The topics were Appliance Maintenance and Lowering Utility Costs.
David, a heating & air professional for 30 years, shared on appliance maintenance and blew me away! He opened with reminding us to be thankful. Not so long ago the things we consider necessities, like a washing machine, central heating & air, etc were luxuries and not so long before that were non existent. Wow! Think about that for a minute....no a/c...hand washing clothes....line drying??? There certainly is MUCH to be thankful for just looking around at those things we may take for granted.
I won't share everything but I will share with you a few points I took away from it and also a tip or two. The appliances we have in our home are considered "big ticket" or expensive items. We usually save up $$ for awhile and cut back to afford these items, we bring them home plug them in and then use them and use them hard until they start making a weird noise or not performing optimally. Then we might call a repair man get an estimate and if it is too high we start saving for a new one or a better one with more bells and whistles.
Or maybe that's just me.
There is a lot we can do to extend the life of our major appliances. A major point was anything with a motor need to be kept CLEAN and this is not emptying the refrigerator of stinky food or cleaning the lint off the dryer filter. It is getting under/behind/around the refrigerator cleaning the coils getting that motor stopping dust and debris away from the motor. Getting into the dryer every 1-3 years and clean out the lint that made it past the filter.
Your dryer's lint filter gets a coating on it from the fabric softner that you might not see with your eye but if you take the filter and pour a bit of water on it and it doesn't run right through you've got build up and it is causing your dryer to work harder and your lint filter won't be catching all the lint. **TIP** Once a month scrub with soap and water your dryer's lint filter. After you've cleaned it run water over it again it should go right through.
Well that is something I never knew!!! Scary so I will be scrubbing my dryer lint filter today!!!
Another tip he shared was with our furnace filters. I think we all kind of know the rule of thumb to change your filters with the time change or every 6 months, etc. A light bulb lit when David shared that each household is different. He said a single person without much activity may not need to change their filters for 6 months. But a busy household with 4 people some pets and alot more activity may need to change their air filters every 2 weeks, okay I think every 2 weeks might have been sarcasm but you get what he's saying right??? Each household has it's own rythm it's own furnace etc. **TIP** When you go to change your filter next if you can't see any light through it know that you need to change it more quickly next time. Shorten your changing time. I look forward to pinpointing our household's filter schedule (LOL is that dorky or what) so that we can maximize our furnace's efficiency and save $$ just by letting it run properly.
In conclusion, what I loved most learning to be a better steward of my appliances will save me $$ and also extend the life of the items I have invested my $$ into which also saves me money in the long term. Of course I was (probably still am) one of those people who thinks a
washing machine, dryer, air conditioner, dishwasher, etc etc, are all
rights of living in this day and time. I will be working hard to
remind myself of the luxuries I have and how I can best utilize them to
bless my family in their intended purpose but also blessing my family
with stewardship which will result in financial abundance.
I'll post soon about part 2 on lowering utility costs.
