Teaching Your Children Energy Efficiency

As with all good habits, it’s smart to start teaching your children about energy efficiency at an early age. Between leaving the water running or every light on in the house, they seem to be oblivious to the notion that those items do in fact require energy that cost money and use natural resources. Of course, this isn’t always an easy task and the most important thing to remember is to lead by example. If the whole family, including mom and dad, are taking the right steps to become an energy efficient home, your kids will catch on in no time!

Introduce a new tip or two each week and before you know it you’ll see a difference in your energy bill and your kids will be making a difference in the world! So, before your little (or big!) tot leaves the bathroom with the water running one more time, follow some of these simple tips to educate your children to be more energy efficient.

Energy efficiency for the kids…

• Your room isn’t afraid of the dark, so turn the lights and electronics off when leaving your room. Remind yourself and the family to turn off the lights when you leave the room by making a fun sign to hang on the door.
• Turn water off when brushing your teeth. Just like you use a lot of energy when you run for too long so does your water!
• What’s the worst kind of vampire out there? An energy vampire! Make sure to unplug electronics that are not in use because even if you remember to turn it off it is still sucking energy.
• Don’t keep the refrigerator door open, as you can feel the cold air coming out warmer air is headed in. This warmer air will make your fridge have to work harder to get back to the right temperature to keep your yummy snacks cold!
• During the summer months, close the drapes and use ceiling fans to keep their room cooler and do the opposite to keep their rooms warm during the winter months.

Energy efficiency for the parents…

• To make learning about energy efficiency easier, make it fun. You can do this by incorporating different tools such as “Join the Lorax”, which is a webpage that contains games, coloring pages and more geared towards helping the environment.
• If your child is still afraid of the dark, look for night lights or light up toys that automatically turn off after a set period of time. These toys like the Turtle constellation night light and the popular Pillow Pets Dream Lites both emit gentle lighting and have a sleep timer.
• It’s never too late to teach energy efficiency – children of all ages can make a difference by incorporating just a few small habits into their daily routine.
• Most importantly, teach your children that energy efficiency doesn’t have to be a chore or a boring task – make a game of it – the first one to turn off all the lights before you leave the house wins!

Guest Post Courtesy of Bounce Energy
Bounce Energy is a full-service retail provider of electricity in Texas and Pennsylvania. Find more posts on energy efficiency from Bounce Energy on the Bounce Energy Blog.