Another chilly morning!

Brrrr....we woke up to another brisk morning! Woohoo!
Temp. at 5:30 was 57 at my house. Quickly, I turn off the alarm, deactivate the chime mode & run like a mad woman to open all the windows and let that cool fresh air in! We live all summer for these days :)
I'm hoping that this will have some effect on my electric bill. I've been running a steady $400 to $500 a month since April :( That is a big chunk of money considering I'm used to $350 being the most every and that's usually for August. In August this year, it went to $575...that was just too much to deal with. So I've been trying to cut back where I can on electric, and trying to encourage the rest of the house to do the same. Here are some of the things I'm doing but couldn't tell you if it's really making a difference or not since FPL now adds a fuel charge on that matches the current price of fuel:
Less drying - trying to dry for 30 minutes & hang up to dry the rest of the way. This is really a battle since we have 2 adults & 2 teens and lots and lots of clothes. My mil actually made a joke when she was here "I'm trying to figure out how 4 small people can make so much laundry" ... I hear ya! I have 2 of the wooden clothes drying racks one of which is huge. But still. Wish I had a clothes line but they just arent' acceptable in south florida. Actually banned in some areas (which reminds me of the website: laundrylist.org)
Cranking air conditioning up during the day. We have the programable thermostats but unfortunately, dh has them set to run so the house stays cool. 76 over night, 77 during day when we are at work. Recently convinced him to change to 77 around 1am, back to 76 around 5am and back to 78 at 8:30am. I've had these suckers on hold at 78 round the clock, especially on the east side of house. However, seems like I can hear them (especially east side) running constantly so not sure if this was very effective? The east side of the house actually has a florida room (all windows) that faces west and north. The west windows get full sun at around 3pm til sunset. What a pain. Beautiful view but need to keep the shades closed otherwise it bakes!
TVs, lights, computers, etc. Just turn them off when not using. Need I say more? Apparently so as no one does this but me!!! :)
Have not gotten around to the phantom things (you know, vcrs, etc.) that run juice when not in use. Have changed a few of the lights to those cfl's ... the outside garage lights that run sundown to sunup. Hubby insists on these being on because the boat is out there in the drive, and well, theft does happen. We've already had 3 trailers and one boat stolen. If this one got stolen I don't think he would ever be the same!

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