Save Cash and Energy on Vacation.

You have a vacation home. Lucky you. It’s your escape, your respite, your sanctuary.  It’s the place you feel closest to the earth and furthest from the grind.  You pay the taxes willingly, although not without pain. And you pay the utility bills. You probably don't spend many cold months here, so your energy focus is on your house, not on the summer place.  But do you really have to pay as much as you do?

Herein, 10 ways to have fun, save money and be more efficient on vacation (and spend less time in town), with or without guests on hand.

1. Skip the heat. Up here, even in the season called summer, there are chilly days and cool nights. Leave throws and blankets over sofas and at the end of beds. If mornings are cool, cuddle under a blanket with your coffee.  No need to kick in the heat for those few hours before the sun gets you up and out. Take the pledge--only wood and body heat.

2. Get to know your vacation house.  An electricity monitor (like our TED, The Energy Detective) is a great addition to vacation house, particularly if you lend or rent it to others. Let guests know that ordinarily, you can run the place at x watts, and see if they can keep up with the last batch of guests.  

3. Use crank power. You have the time (and on rainy days, way too much time). Use muscle to power your own radios and flashlights.  You’ll feel great, have functioning radios and flashlights, and earn your beer.

4. Save water on vacation. Load and load and load your dishwasher, then run it.  Many of us eat at odd hours and snack a lot during the day when on vacation. Fine. But don’t wash dishes by hand. You’ll waste water.  Run the dishwasher when it’s full. (And while those dishes are getting sparkly clean… go play).

5.  Give your guests towels for the duration of their stay. Even hotels have opted to wash and dry fewer towels. You are not a hotel, and your dryer probably doesn’t need to run in the summer very often.  Embrace your inner clothesline – even if it's a porch railing or the back of a lawn chair.

6.  Use a low flow showerhead (we use the Evolve Showerstart Showerhead), and put one in the guest bathroom, too.  Your guests may not realize it’s low flow, but you’ll notice that their long luscious showers to get over beach chill bother you and your wallet a whole lot less.

7.  Use rechargeable batteries, and bring your recharger on vacation. Waste not.

8.  Use energy efficient bulbs. Bring CFL and LED bulbs with you. You won’t have to replace a bulb all summer. That’s fewer trips to town, and more time in the water. You won't use them much, anyway. The days are long, and most vacation houses are infused with light. Before you head out, cruise through and switch off bathroom and bedroom lights that get flicked on reflexively.

9.  Use night lights and motion sensor lights in halls and bathrooms. Reliable bright lights are comforting to guests in new locations. A little light will do the trick. No sense leaving the living room lit up like a ship.

10. Put a note on the back of the toilet: ‘”In this place of fun and sun, please don’t flush for number one.” And consider this addendum:  “Unless we’ve had asparagus for dinner.”