How are you running things in your household? Do you divide the chores so that the kids can learn how to do their share in maintaining the home? Do you make them responsible for cleaning their own room? Do you make sure that there’s equal time for playing and studying?
One more thing that you should include on the list of things to teach children is saving electricity. Read on to find out how you can raise kids who are environmentally conscious and find out how you can teach them to save electricity inside your home.
Teaching Kids to Be Eco-Conscious
As you may already know, the natural resources across the globe are slowly being depleted. The effects of global warming are also slowly catching up on Earth, which is why each and every household is encouraged to do their part in reducing carbon emission. This is something that can be done by cutting back on energy use – starting from electricity to water.
What’s good about living in a country like the US is that clean water can be had simply by turning on the faucet. There are other not-so-fortunate people in the world who live in areas where potable water is difficult to come by.
This is exactly the reason why kids should be taught that all-important lesson of conserving energy, both electricity and water. If the value of being eco-conscious is something that was ingrained in them while still young, they can carry this over well unto adulthood. The result is that more and more households in the future will become eco-conscious, and every little bit helps in this regard.
Lots of Ways to Teach Kids How to Save Electricity
As a parent, there are many things that you can do inside the house to make sure that you are conserving electricity. Not only will this make your household more eco-friendly, but you can also cut back on the utility bills that you have to pay. The savings that you will incur will add up, so you can free up money from your budget to buy the little luxuries that you can afford.
So what can you do in order to make sure that your house is operating in an electricity-efficient manner? If you have not already done so, replace all your light bulbs with energy saving ones. As compared to traditional lights, LEDs last longer without affecting the level of brightness of the lamps.
Not only that, but you will also be saving a lot of energy in the process. When replacing big ticket appliances at home, look for ones with a high energy efficiency rating.
Although you can save big on electricity by doing these two tasks, you can save even more if you will teach the kids how to do their share in helping slash off your electricity bills. So how exactly can you teach kids the value of saving electricity? Take a look at the following list:
Have the kids turn off appliances when not in use
If the television set in the living area is not in use, have the kids turn it off, along with any other appliance which is not being used. Leaving any electronic gadget or electrical appliance on when nobody is using it is simply a waste of electricity.
If your three-year-old is coloring books, for instance, show him or her how you turned off the television set in order to save on electricity. When doing such tasks that help you save on energy, explain to the younger kids that what you are doing is friendly to the environment and that it will help you cut back on electricity bills.
Say goodbye to standby electricity
Standby power, standby electricity, vampire power, phantom power or phantom electricity – this is the amount of energy being used when appliances are left on standby mode instead of fully turning them off. Phantom electricity can take up as much as 15% of your overall electricity use, so you should teach the kids how not to accumulate phantom power!
How can it be done? If you have a gadget-crazy household, for example, and you have an assortment of laptop computers, mobile phones, tablets, MP3 players, gaming consoles, etc. What do the kids do after the device has been fully charged? It could be that they are simply leaving the charger onto the electrical outlet.
When this happens, the charger is actually consuming phantom electricity. The same thing holds true for television sets and other appliances which are left on standby mode instead of being fully turned off. To make the task of turning these appliances off a lot easier, what you can do is use a power strip. This way, you only need to press one button to turn everything off when leaving the house.
During winter, get them to dress in warm clothes even while inside the house
Heating and cooling costs account for about 50% of a household’s overall electricity usage. During winter, make the heating system in your house work to the fullest by adjusting the temperature by at least one degree.
Then, simply have the kids dress warmly even while inside the house. You can do the same thing during summer. Instead of always leaving the air conditioning unit on, you can have the kids dress in cool clothes.
Limit their time online
Almost all kids of different ages these days are addicted to gadgets like tablet computers. What you can do as a parent is limit the amount of time that they spend online. Not only will you be saving electricity in the process, but you can also get them to play real games with other kids outside the house.
Teach the older kids how to conserve energy especially when doing household chores
If you have a tween daughter, for example, you can teach her how to conserve electricity by only turning on the dishwasher once it has a full load. Eliminate having to use the hot water cycle when doing the laundry so that you can save on electricity.
If you must use an electrical iron to press clothes, do it during night time or in the cooler part of the afternoon so that you can save on energy. Have the kids open the blinds or curtains to let in as much of the natural light and air as possible.
Have them help out in the kitchen and explain to them how electricity can be saved while preparing food
If you must reheat food, use the microwave instead of the regular oven. If you must whisk something, use a regular whisk instead of the electric one. The added bonus is that you can give your arms a slight workout. While you are preparing food in the kitchen, have the kids help out and explain to them what you are doing in order to save on electricity.
Download apps that will teach them the value of conserving energy
For the older kids who are spending quite some time on their tablet computers, you can download apps that will teach them the value of conserving energy.
For instance, there are apps which help homeowners manage energy consumption. Other apps teach kids about the value of using alternative energy sources like solar energy.
There are also applications which teach kids how to read an electrical meter or how to monitor the energy consumption inside the home. With these apps, kids can learn about the value of conserving energy.
Teach them the value of also saving water
While you’re at it, why not teach kids the value of saving water as well? Just like electricity, water is a precious resource that needs to be saved. If not conserved, the natural water resources can easily dry up and no safe-to-drink water will be available for people.
How can you get kids to learn about the value of saving water? Encourage them to join you in making science projects like a rain barrel. Demonstrate what happens and how water shortage will occur if there is no rain and no water is collected inside the barrel.
More than that, it’s their everyday habits that need to change if you would like to teach them how to conserve water. Encourage them to take shorter showers, teach them how to only use a glass of water while brushing their teeth, and teach them additional ways to save water inside the house.
Some of these may sound like small changes to make. But when they are done every day, the difference will be huge especially once you see your next electricity bill. By teaching kids the value and importance of saving electricity, you can impart to them the lesson that electricity and water are resources that need to be conserved.
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Without them, it will be more difficult to lead a clean, healthy and happy lifestyle – just imagine how you can survive a day without running water or electricity. Start your kids young so that they can develop green habits that will last them for practically a lifetime.