One of the most efficient ways to save money is to cut back on your electric bill. Most people just use electricity since it is often available in constant supply without thinking about the bill that comes with it.
If you are looking for ways to save money, this guide will provide you with practical tips on how to cut your electric bill. Your electric bill is one issued by a local utility company to you for the total amount of electricity you consume in your house or space.
Most electricity users dread that time of the month when the bill comes. This is because they are almost sure it would be on the high end, making it extremely difficult to stick to a budget.
It is possible to save money on your electric bill, be confident when the bill comes and live within your budget. Let us get to the brass tacks of cutting your electric bill.
20 Helpful Tips to Cut Your Electric Bill
1. Use a Programmable Thermostat
In most homes and offices, the reason for having an unusually high electric bill is the heating and cooling (HVAC). This is so because of the changes in external temperature, weather conditions, and personal preferences.
While it is true that manually reducing the amount of energy consumed by turning the heat or thermostat down can help reduce your electric bill, but it is not nearly enough. To get the best value for your electric bill and reduce the bill altogether, it is best to use a programmable thermostat.
With a programmable thermostat in your home, you can easily program your home’s temperature in line with the time of the day or when you are asleep. As such, your programmable thermostat will automatically make the changes on your HVAC system, thereby reducing electricity bills to the minimum with efficiency and saving more.
TIP! Buy a Nest Self-Learning Thermostat. It learns your schedule and the temperatures you like and programs itself to help you save energy and stay comfortable. The thermostat costs $219 but pays for itself.
2. Wear Comfortable Clothing
Another effective way to cut back on your electric bill is to wear comfortable clothing based on weather conditions at any given time of the year. This may sound trivial but can help you save up to 10% of your electric bill deducted because of the heavy use of your HVAC system.
Depending on the time of the year, do not hesitate to dress up or down as making due adjustments to your wardrobe can help you stay cool regardless of the weather and all the more reducing your use of energy-draining devices that regulate the temperature of your home and ultimately cutting back on your bill.
3. Add More Insulation to Your Space
It is not unusual to find that houses are insulated. However, it is true that even with a typically insulated house, the cold hands of the winter season can sabotage the comfort of your home. What can you do? You need to add extra insulation to your home.
When your home is extra insulated, it is protected from harsh weather conditions, and the temperature is maintained. To determine if your home is well insulated, check the walls of your home to the pipes. If you think you need extra insulation in your home, contact a skilled electrician or handyman company to get the job done.
Be assured that with extra insulation in your home, you get to reduce the cost of your electric bill and save more.
4. Check and Change Your Air Filter
Your air filter keeps your HVAC system in proper working conditions by catching dust, pollen, and other debris forms, thereby keeping clean air circulating through the HVAC system.
While going about your house chores and other daily routines, be sure to watch for your air filter if it needs a replacement. A dirty or faulty air filter in your HVAC will only make the system consume more energy without working efficiently, thereby resulting in a waste of sorts.
With a replacement, your HVAC will work efficiently without the pent up load with a dirty air filter and overall reduce the amount spent on the electric bill.
5. Use Your Home Appliances Strategically
You must employ a strategy while using your home appliances, which can significantly help reduce your electric bill. Applying strategy while using your home appliances ranges from using washing machines to dishwashers, all intending to save cost.
You can load your washing machine and dishwasher to full capacity when you need to wash clothes and dishes, respectively; hence, you do not waste energy and time when the appliances are partly filled.
Also, endeavor to dry your clothes immediately instead of waiting in between washes to save more energy.
Interestingly, a workable strategy varies where home appliances are concerned. Use the one that works for you, and be sure to save money on your electricity consumption.
6. Reduce Your Water Heater’s Temperature
Your water heater is another source of high electric bills. It serves the whole house hot water from showers to kitchen sinks and laundry machines. Your water heater consumes much energy because it usually maintains a reservoir of warm water in a tank.
While the ideal temperature to have your water heater running efficiently is 120 Fahrenheit, you will significantly reduce your electric bill if you reduce the water heater’s heat to the minimum.
You can also choose to turn it off entirely while you are on vacation, spending an extended period at work, or on a business trip.
7. Make Sure All Appliances are in Perfect Working Condition
All electrical appliances need electricity to run. When they are faulty or dysfunctional, they only drain energy and worse; they won’t work. To ensure your appliances are in top-shelf condition, you need to check and use them regularly.
Adopt the maintenance culture by carefully cleaning, repairing, and servicing home appliances. This can be done bi-annually or annually at your convenience. If you need to replace your home appliances, do so with energy-saving and efficient ones. Doing these will help you save on your electric bill.
8. Check Doors and Windows for Leaks
With time, your home may develop cracks, leaks, and other openings. The presence of holes and cracks in your home can have a serious bearing on your electric bill, especially when undetected for long periods.
When you finally detect cracks, leaks, and other openings in various parts of your home, caulk, weatherstrip, replace faulty seals, or request a handyman’s services on your windows, doors, and other parts of your house that need to be sealed.
When this is done, your house is airtight, and you reduce heat waste as hot air won’t escape, and cold air won’t come in. With this, you save on your electric bill.
9. Migrate To a Prepaid Electric Bill Plan
While trying to cut down on your electric bill, one of the best alternatives is to migrate from a long term contract to a prepaid electric bill plan with an electricity company that allows you only pay for the amount of electricity you consume.
With a prepaid electric plan, you can monitor your electricity use, pay only for what you use, not an estimate, and save as much on your electric bill
TIP! Check if you can save money on your electric bill and check the energy plans at Direct Energy. They help you choose the perfect plan for your lifestyle and budget. For UK readers, check out EDF Energy‘s fixed price tariffs.
10. Air-dry Your Dishes
While using your dishwasher, refrain from using the heat-dry feature. Slightly open the door of your dishwasher just a tad bit and let the dishes air-dry. Do not hesitate to use if your dishwasher has the air-dry feature.
By doing this, you reduce the amount of energy your dishwasher uses and save on your electric bill.
11. Use LED Lighting
LED bulbs only use 25% energy compared to incandescent lighting and last 25 times more. If you have not already switched to LED lighting solutions, it is best to do so now to save on your electric bill and use a smarter long-lasting product.
12. Use Motion Detectors
With state-of-the-art motion detection technology, automated motion detectors can turn on and off lights from each part of your home, depending on your household’s movement.
When this type of tech is in use, they turn on when anyone moves and turns themselves off when no motion is detected. This way, your lights don’t stay on even when they are not serving any purpose. Also, unwanted visitors on your property at night won’t see it coming when the lights turn on when they arrive within range.
13. Use Smaller Appliances
Suppose you need to make use of home appliances to cook or heat just a small portion of food. In that case, it is energy efficient and cost-effective to use smaller appliances like a toaster oven or microwave to achieve the best results and still cut on your electric bill because smaller home appliances use smaller amounts of energy than the larger ones.
14. Keep Your Large Oven Closed
If you ever need to use your oven, the big one always keeps it closed to ensure the temperature does not drop. Interestingly, every time your oven is opened while in use, the internal temperature reduces by 25 degrees.
To avoid a reduction in temperature leading to using more electricity consumption to level the temperature to optimum, always keep your oven closed. If you need to confirm if your oven is working efficiently, peek through the oven’s window and use the oven’s light instead of opening the oven and losing heat, thereby saving up on your electric bill.
15. Install a Dimmer
When a dimmer is installed in rooms and other parts of your home, your lights reduce output and wattage, thereby helping you conserve energy, and when power is conserved, you can cut back on your electric bill.
16. Use Energy-efficient Plugs
Before plugging in your appliances to the wall, it is best to use smart, energy-efficient plugs that can help you turn on and off your devices, thereby saving energy and cutting your electric bill.
17. Put Your Electronics on Standby Mode
Standby uses a considerable amount of energy. But when compared to leaving your electronics on, especially when they are not in use, you save when your electronics are on standby.
18. Clean Your Dryer
Your dryer consumes a substantial amount of energy and can consume more if it is not in its best working condition. After each use, determine if your dryer is in its optimal working condition. Keep your dryer clean, especially the dryer vent and lint trap, to ensure continued efficiency, thereby saving on energy consumption and electric bill.
19. Check The Location of Your Thermostat
While using a programmable thermostat is vital, your thermostat location is just as important. Check the location of your programmable thermostat in use as it could as well be in the wrong spot. If this is so, change your thermostat’s place to where it can work efficiently.
Direct sunlight, drafts, and other trivial factors could trigger your furnace or AC on when they are not needed. But with your programmable thermostat in the right location, nothing can go wrong.
20. Integrate With Solar
Solar power is nature’s gift and harnessed power of the sun. While you may be unable to integrate your whole home with solar energy, you can, in smaller ways, incorporate solar power into your everyday life at cost-effective prices while reducing your electric bill.
You can get a portable solar power bank that can store up to 25,000 mAh of power and can be used to recharge your devices.
You may also connect your outdoor lights by integrating them into a solar panel, as they can charge and store energy since the lights are mostly needed at night.
Using solar power is a safe, eco-friendly, and effective way to reduce your monthly electric bill.
Conclusion
You do not always have to dread that time of the month when your electric bill comes. In fact, after applying the practical tips in this article, you can be confident that your electric bill will reduce to the lowest. You can maintain your budget and spend your money on other essential bills.
