One of the easiest ways for anyone to begin reducing their carbon footprint and using less electricity is to recycle their electricity. This is not commonly mentioned in sustainability blogs or eco-minded magazines, but technology exists whereby a portion of your electricity usage can be recycled. I should know–I have it installed at my house.

Motor-driven appliances like refrigerators, air conditioners, freezers, fans, dishwashers and washing machines, and devices with transformers like cell phone chargers, computers, compact fluorescent bulbs or anything else with an adapter or “wall wart” can benefit from this technology. When these devices are turned on or used, they first push and then pull electricity. The push sends electricity that has already entered your house through your meter back out into the grid. A Peak Energy box installed near your breaker box captures a portion of this energy, stores it for a fraction of a second until the device or appliance requires it and then returns it. At the end of the month you discover that your bill (and kWh used) is 15-20% lower than usual. This continues as long as you keep the Peak Energy box.

We installed our Peak Energy box on June 19, 2013. In the first 3 months we saw an average savings of nearly 17%. The following months are a little more difficult to decipher as by then we had had our solar array installed and it was busy generating electricity. However, as we knew that our solar array was only capable of producing 50% of our average electricity need, and we have reduced our bills by 65%, I’d say it’s still working. The 65% reduction is when every month is averaged including the winter months when we had such extreme temperatures that all of our numbers are way off (at least we have a baseline now). If we look at months when we did not use our electric heat (no savings with a Peak Energy box here), but A/C (from April to October), then we have savings above 75%!

So it’s really easy to start being more green. A smart way to have this snowball is to take any savings from the Peak Energy box and set them aside until you can afford a small solar setup for your home. If you have an aging water heater you could get a solar water heating system first, and then take those savings and buy a few solar panels, and then slowly add more as the savings pile up. Our solar array cost over $10,000 and is saving us 50%, but our Peak Energy box cost us $603.40 with installation and sales tax and is saving us 15% at least. The box will pay for itself in less than 2 years, not factoring in the IRS credit on installation of renewable energy ($181.02, leaving us with $422.38 out-of-pocket costs). Someone with a larger home, or a house with a pool, or a business could see payback in a few months.

So if you’re interested in saving 10-30% on your monthly electric bill, just drop me an email at: gogreen@tradingstressforserenity.com

– Mark Bowers on September 23, 2014