Babies and Energy

If you’re a new parent, whether this baby is your first or your fourth, there’s bound to be plenty of excitement as you bring your new child home. PSNH wants to provide you with important information you can use at this special time.

Being a parent today holds so many challenges and responsibilities that you’re probably wondering how you’ll keep up with it all… and if you’re doing things right. PSNH will help you be sure your baby is safe and comfortable. At the same time, we’ll show you ways to ease the big energy impact new babies can have on a household.

Warming Your Heart and Your Home

One of the keys to keeping your baby as healthy and comfortable as possible is proper warmth. Therefore, doctors and childcare specialists recommend keeping you home at 65 to 70 degrees during the first six months. At night, these temperatures can be lowered a bit, as long as the baby is well-covered.

In the home, dress your baby in as many layers of clothing as you yourself are comfortable wearing.

Bath-Time Basics

Bathing you baby can be a lot of fun for both of you when you keep a few simple tips in mind:

• During baths, babies need a room temperature of 70-75 degrees to keep warm. To minimize energy use, heat the bathroom by taking a bath or shower yourself right before bathing the baby.
• Consider using a small basin or tub to bathe your baby - you’ll save both water and energy.
• Ideally, bath water temperature should be between 90-100 degrees. An easy way to check if it’s right is the "elbow" test. Put your elbow in the water, and if you can’t tell whether it’s warm or cold, it’s the right temperature.
• The safest way to fill the tub is to put cold water in first, followed by hot water. If you start with hot water first your tub can retain the heat and can burn your baby.
• At first, your baby can simply be wiped and rinsed with a wet washcloth and dried with a warm towel. During bathing, try to minimize the cooling of your baby’s body from evaporating.

The Labor of Laundry

By now, you probably know that your new bundle of joy creates bundles and bundles of laundry. To save you time and energy, here are our recommendations for doing laundry:

• First, let’s address the cloth versus disposable diapers debate. From an economic point of view, you will probably be better off using cloth diapers.
• If you do wash diapers at home, use hot water and always wash them separately from other laundry. You don’t have to boil diapers, as some people recommend, an extra rinse cycle in the washer does the job just as well.
• Other baby clothes should be washed in warm water as hot water can ruin flame-retardants in clothing.
• Use the high spin cycle for towels, diapers, or other heavy items. It will extract more water from the items and reduce drying time.
• Try to wash and dry several loads consecutively, a warm dryer shortens drying time.
• Don’t add wet items to a partially dried load in your dryer, it will only increase the drying time and, therefore, energy consumption.

Watch Your Water Heating

Many burn accidents from hot water can be prevented simply by lowering the hot water setting on your water heater. The recommended temperature is 120 degrees. Test your hot water temperature using the steps below:

• Run hot water from the tap closest to your water heater.
• Check the temperature with a meat, candy, or water thermometer.
• Turn your water heater down to a lower setting if the temperature is 120 degrees or above.
• Wait a day for the water to reach the new temperature, then repeat the test.

According to the National Institute for Burn Medicine, half of all burn accidents in the home can be prevented by lowering hot water settings. Why wait and take a chance? Test your hot water today.

Appliance Advice

As your family grows, so will your use of household appliances. Your washer and dryer will certainly be working overtime, and you may be adding new electric appliances just for your baby. A vaporizer and space heater in the nursery, for example, will make your baby more comfortable, but will also increase your use of electricity.

The impact appliances have on your electric bill depends on many factors, such as wattage and length of use. By checking the manufacturer’s nameplate on appliances, you can determine the wattage and therefore estimate the cost of operation. Careful shoppers can choose lower-wattage appliances that will provide the same service at less cost. Limiting the time you use appliances will also reduce energy usage. Run a space heater, for instance, only as long as needed to heat the room you’re in, keeping it on continuously wastes energy and may create a fire hazard.

To help you anticipate the costs of operating new appliances and help reduce energy use throughout your home, PSNH has developed an energy calculator online.

Playing it Safe Around the House

A new baby often calls for new strategies around the house, particularly where electric energy is concerned. There are many ways to safeguard your home against accidents and make wise use of energy. Here are a few important ones:

• Even before your baby can walk, cover all electrical outlets with plug covers available at your local hardware store and be careful with extension cords. If a cord isn’t connected to an appliance, your baby may put it in his or her mouth and chew on it.
• Place fan and space heaters where your baby can’t get at them. Also exercise caution with free-standing stoves or kerosene heaters - they could cause serious burns.
• Warming baby bottles in your microwave oven is not recommended. Microwaves can cause changes in formula and breast milk, and can heat liquids to dangerously hot temperatures that parents may not detect. Plastic bottle liners have also exploded after microwave heating, so it’s probably best to heat bottles in a pan of hot tap water instead, or mix powdered formula with warm water at the time of each feeding.
• Consider putting a lamp with a night-light in your baby’s room. It will provide plenty of light during waking hours, and can be turned to a lower setting at night so you won’t trip over something in the dark when you go in to check on the baby.
• If you haven’t already done so, be sure your home is well-insulated. Caulking and weather-stripping around doors and windows will prevent drafts and make your home’s heating and cooling systems work more efficiently. And, with a new baby in the house, you’ll appreciate the extra savings.