13 Free & Easy Tips on How To Lower Energy Bills!
Want to learn how to lower electric bills? Then you have come to the right place. Here you can find some great tips and tricks, as well as learn about new technology that will help to make this possible.
Now, first thing’s first: if you want to be successful at this, then you’ll need to know what causes a high bill in the first place. This way, you’ll know what areas of your home to target. While it’s true that these can vary from home to home, usually there are some major sources of energy use that apply to nearly everyone.
So let’s get started!
Why is My Electricity Bill So High?
The reasons for higher than average electric bills can be broken down into the following categories:
1. Misuse
2. Waste
3. Overuse
Misuse covers things like washing clothes with very small loads, leaving refrigerator doors open, having the a/c running when you’re not home, etc.
Waste is a bit more subtle. It includes things like “phantom charge” (appliances drawing power even when switched off), “power factor” (drawing more electricity than needed) and general inefficiency due to age or design.
Overuse is exactly what it sounds like. Using more lights than necessary would be an example of overuse. So would having the TV on while browsing the web at the same time. This one is controlled by our usage habits.
And that’s pretty much it. Only three reasons why you’re paying more for electricity than you should. So handling it is going to be easy right? Well, not exactly. While some are very obvious and only require a simple reminder to change, others are more complex and will require some more extensive handlings.
Fortunately, the energy saving tips you’ll find below will help you to reduce energy costs by attacking all three of the reasons above.
So without further ado, let’s get into the different ways to cut electricity bills.
How to Save on Electricity Bill…
The best way to sort these tips is by area of use, this way you’ll be able to organize your efforts.
[BEST TIP ON HOW TO LOWER ELECTRIC BILL!] Focus on Lowering Air Conditioning Costs (And Heating)
This is the biggest energy hog on the list. In fact Energy Star reports that 40-60% of your energy bill comes from heating and cooling your home. It is frequently guilty of being overused and it constantly wastes power. Here’s how to cut the amount of power the A/C uses down to size:
1. Use a programmable thermostat. With it you can easily program your A/C to turn off and on at specified times (useful so you’ll never worry about leaving it on all day again). You can also have it change the temperature at desired times of the day. Set it to turn the temperature up a bit at night once it’s cooled off outside.
2. Keep your air filter clean. This will not only permit easy airflow through your home, which means the motor works less, but it will also keep the air you’re breathing cleaner.
3. Get an Electric Saver 1200 installed. These devices will help to recycle the electricity that an A/C unit regularly wastes, which actually is quite a lot. This is one of the best ways to decrease electric bill costs as you could see a 10% to 20% reduction with this device alone. Not only does this work to save electricity with your a/c, but it does the same for many of your other appliances at the same time.
Get Lower Electricity Bill by Making Your Water Heater Energy Efficient!
Water heating makes up over 15% of your monthly power bill, so this is another great area to attack. Again, you have a few different things you can do:
1. Insulate your water heater to keep the water hotter for longer. This reduces the amount of heating cycles per day the heater has to run. While you’re at it, don’t forget to insulate the connecting pipes as well.
2. Wash clothes with cold water whenever possible. The amount of water your washing machine uses varies on a number of factors, but it could be anywhere from 15 to 45 gallons per load! Even at the low side, that’s still a lot of water. So washing with cold water will definitely save on water heating.
3. Take showers instead of baths. You’ll not only save on electricity, but you’ll also save on water.
How to Reduce Electric Bill: Lower the Cost of Lighting
Although lighting only makes up about 12% of your bill, that doesn’t mean that there’s no point in finding ways to reduce lighting costs. Especially when this one is pretty easy to tackle:
1. Switch out your old incandescent light bulbs for high efficiency LED or CFL ones. The light bulbs you grew up on are so inefficient that they aren’t even made in the US anymore. Sure, the LED or CFL bulbs are a bit more expensive, but they last much, much longer.
2. Install dimmer switches for your most commonly used lights. This will allow you to only use as much light as you need (not to mention set a romantic mood). Any time you are using less than full power, you are saving electricity and money.
Save on Electric Bills with Appliances
This one varies a lot as there are many different types of appliances and devices. Hopefully with the three reasons above (misuse,waste,overuse) you can figure out more ways to save energy than those listed below:
1. Unplug appliances that aren’t in use. This will handle the “phantom charge” talked about earlier. You could also plug them into a smart power strip if you don’t fancy having to constantly unplug and plug in appliances.
2. When buying new appliances, get ones that are energy star certified. These will use much less electricity than their regular counterparts.
3. Wash clothes in larger loads so you can do less of them. Not only will this save water, but electricity as well.
4. Set your refrigerator and freezer to a slightly warmer setting. Your food will still stay fresh but you’ll use less electricity.
5. Set “smart” devices to automatically turn off or at least “go to sleep” after a period of inactivity.
With the above information, you should be able to start saving power in no time. Keep in mind that these aren’t the only ways to do it. But even if you only stick to a few of the above, you should be able to easily reduce your energy bill by up to 25%.