Was your last electric bill higher than you would have liked? You might be wasting energy in ways you don’t even realize, and there are tons of ways you can cut those costs and drastically reduce your annual energy bill. Here are some of the best ones.
1. Turn off the Lights
Do you leave lights on when you aren’t in a room? This is one of the biggest energy wasters in your home. The lights use very little energy, but the cumulative effect is considerable. Make sure you let other people in the home know to turn off lights as well when they leave a room. If you leave any lights on when you go to work, those lights need to be turned off too. They can cost you around $6 for every 1,000 hours they are left on.
2. Unplug Unused Appliances and Electronics
There may be some appliances in your home that drain electricity even when you don’t use them. This is especially true of smart electronics that have a wi-fi connection or that need updates periodically. They may be doing tasks in the background that could be pulling in energy when you are not aware of it.
The same is true of many of your electronic devices, like computers, video game consoles and smart devices. Shutting them down doesn’t necessarily stop the energy drain, and you will need to physically unplug them to keep them from sapping your current. If you are going away for a few days and won’t be using anything in the house, then you should unplug everything you can. The cost savings can be substantial.
3. Do Housework During the Day
You have to use a lot more electricity to do tasks at night than you do during the day. In the daytime, you can use natural lighting and open the windows to get some fresh air. You can also use the sunlight to dry mats and other heavy objects that need to be cleaned. At night, you have to turn on lights, and you may not want to leave windows or doors open. You may prefer to use the washer and dryer to clean mats and rugs at night rather than trying to clean and dry them outside. All of this uses more electricity.
4. Hire out the Cleaning
If you are strictly looking to cut down on energy costs, then having someone else do your housecleaning makes sense. They will probably do a better job and will get the work done quicker. You may also save money overall when you hire a company for maid services (read more here). When your time is very valuable, you can save money by hiring out the tasks that don’t have to be done by you personally.
5. Consolidate Laundry
Instead of washing your clothes in small batches as you need clean clothes, you can wait until the end of the week and wash everything at once. You may still need to separate whites and colors, but you will wash your clothes in fewer loads if you wait until most of the laundry is dirty. This saves you a lot of extra work in taking things out of the washer and dryer and saves you on electricity usage as well.
6. Seal Your Windows and Doors
If outside air is able to get in through your windows and under your doors, you will pay more in energy costs for heating and cooling your home. The air inside your home may be escaping as well, and that means it will take more energy to get your interior to maintain a comfortable temperature. Take a look at areas of your home that could be leaking air and seal them up as soon as possible to save on energy costs.
7. Cut Down on Bath Time
One area of your daily life where it is often easy to save some money is in your bath and shower habits. This is especially true if you have several people living in your home. For an hour in the shower, you can pay about 25 cents. If three people in the family do that every day, that adds up to $273 a year. By keeping showers and baths short, you will save on water and energy. Hot showers can use up a lot of energy, and keeping them to 10 minutes or less saves plenty of energy over the course of the year.
There are many small things we do that add to our energy costs, and that means there are some small changes we can all make to cut down on our costs. If you follow some of our advice above, you can enjoy a lower energy bill each month.
I’m pretty good at remembering to turn off lights and plug sockets, but unfortunately my children leave many of their electrical appliances on standby
I used to do laundry a few times a week, but now I wait until I have a full load, we have plenty of clothes, towels etc so it was only breaking a habit!
Brilliant and valuable tips to reduce our energy costs
Great tips and it does actually make sense to do the housework in the day if you can so that you will lose less energy, I never thought of that.
You’ve listed some useful tips – thank you!