Students up their saving savvy in winter

If you’re renting an apartment or a house as a student, you understand how hard it can be to… If you’re renting an apartment or a house as a student, you understand how hard it can be to save money and live comfortably throughout the year. Between tuition, books and other living expenses, money can disappear quickly. Some students constantly find quirky ways to save money, especially on utilities in off-campus apartments.

Electricity accounts for a big chunk of monthly utilities for the average renting student. For some people, the electric bill is incorporated into their rent. But for most, electricity comes as a separate cost.

Demsas Gebrehiwot, a Pitt senior renting a house with six roommates, said the electric bill always causes strife, especially in the warmer months when they use air conditioning. Their electric bill usually runs around $120 per month.

“One of our roommates tries to be conscious about the electricity, always turning off lights, sometimes sitting in the dark for no reason,” Gebrehiwot said. “Sometimes it’s ridiculous, but I’m glad we try to save money when that bill comes every month.”

His roommate, Robel Terzera, sees the logic in taking extra measures to save money. “It might seem a little crazy to turn off the lights as much as possible, but it saves us all money,” he said. “And if it’s saving us money, it can’t be that ridiculous. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to.”

You don’t have to sit in the dark to save electricity, though. Using compact fluorescent light bulbs can reduce your monthly electric bill by a considerable amount. According to the United States Department of Energy’s Web site, lighting in houses and apartments constitutes 20 percent of electric bills, and by using fluorescent light bulbs, people can reduce their energy usage by up to 75 percent.

And the best part? They usually cost about $3.99 each.

“We’ll definitely have to start trying those,” Gebrehiwot said. “It’s got to beat sweating to death and turning everything off all of the time.”

Students can turn up the temperatures in their refrigerators to 40 degrees and freezers to zero degrees to ensure maximum efficiency. Turning off and unplugging certain appliances like TVs, computers and cell phone chargers when they’re not in use always helps decrease the electric bill, too.

Heating costs can also hurt students financially. Tiffany Strong, a Pitt senior renting a three-bedroom apartment in Shadyside, said she’s taken some unusual measures to cut her gas bill down over the past few months. Her and her roommates’ gas bill regularly costs $55 to $70 each month.

“When it was really cold here in October, my heat wasn’t turned on yet, so I did the only thing that made sense. I opened my oven and turned it up to about 325 degrees,” Strong said. “Honestly, I think that provided better heat then the regular radiators.”

Gebrehiwot said that because his oven has its ups and downs, he and his housemates have other techniques that help provide heat without turning up the thermometer.

“We just recently turned on the heat, so before that, we basically lived in layers of clothing and sweatshirts,” Gebrehiwot said. “We eventually turned it on though. It was just too cold.”

Students can also do other small tasks to help save a few dollars on heat. According to msnbc.com, ceiling fans can reduce heating costs if residents set them on their lowest setting during the winter. Since heat rises, the heated air will circulate downwards and throughout the rooms where fans are located. People should also vacuum their vents and radiators regularly and arrange furniture in a way that won’t hinder heat circulation.

Space heaters can be used to heat certain rooms, too. But space heaters can end up costing just as much or more if used too much and can be dangerous if left unattended. The U.S. Department of Energy’s website says that portable heaters start more than 25,000 residential fires annually, resulting in over 300 deaths per year.

“I’ve always heard that space heaters are dangerous, and that’s why we don’t use them in our apartment,” Strong said. “Plus, I feel like it’d run up our electric bill anyway, and I don’t want to do that. It’s all about saving money these days.”