If you are looking for ways to drastically cut down on your monthly expenses, you need to monitor your thermostat more closely. Your electric bills could be going wild all year and you won’t even notice. This is because you haven’t cared to learn how to save money on electric bill. It’s a common mistake that is costing your household some extra money every month.
I once sat a young couple down, giving them insight into how they can save money at home before welcoming their first kid. Then, I asked how often they used the washer, dryer, the soothing salt lamp, the fridge, and other plugged-in appliances. They were a little confused at first, wondering how my question was relevant to their savings goals.
However, after explaining how these appliances can sometimes consume a lot of energy, resulting in higher electric bills, this couple realized they needed to adjust.
In this post, you will learn some of the best ways to save on your electric bill. It’s high time you stopped spending a ton of money unnecessarily on energy. Let’s learn how to save!
How Much Energy Does The Average Household Use?
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration, the average household spends up to $137 per month on electricity. That’s about $1,600 a year. When you calculate other utility costs, you can see the substantial amount of money it takes to run your home.
However, you can exert some level of control over your electrical bills. It all boils down to how you use the various home appliances that consume energy in the house.
13 Genius Tips To Save Money On Electric Bill
Are you ready to learn how to cut down on electric bill to save money? Let’s check out these amazing tips below:
1. Carry Out An Electricity Audit
The word audit may alarm you, but there’s really no need to be scared. This audit mainly involves reviewing how much electricity is used in your house. It is the best place to start if you want to learn how to save money on electric bill.
Ideally, you should speak with a specialist from your neighborhood electric company to get the best audit. There are so many people who provide this service for free or at a very cheap rate.
Moreover, if you want to do it on your own, you can find free internet tools for power audits. Some of what you discover will be easy, low-cost solutions. Others could entail making large purchases or investing in improved appliances. Make sure you do the math to determine if it will benefit your spending limit, future savings goals, and even the value of your house should you decide to sell!
2. Turn Off The Lights
I usually tell my kids to turn off the lights during the day. The sunlight peeping through the windows is enough to brighten the house. When you turn on the lights unnecessarily, you actually deplete both your electricity supply and your financial resources.
Here’s the thing. 0.04 kWh of energy is consumed when a 40-watt lightbulb is turned on for an hour. If the cost of electricity from your utility company is 10 cents per kWh, you will save $0.004 for each hour that the light is off. This tiny amount you save accumulates.
You may save $6 a month on your electricity bill by turning off only five lights in your home for ten hours each day. This is easily one of the best tips to save money on your electric bill.
3. Consider Replacing Your Light Bulbs
Another strategy on how to save on electric bill is using light bulbs that consume less energy. Yes, I know purchasing more energy-efficient lightbulbs will initially cost a little money. But don’t forget you’ll start saving a bit of cash once you start using them.
Using a typical Energy Star-certified LED light bulb will save you over $200 per year. Many LED lights consume way less energy and last 3 times longer than the old incandescent lights you’re already used to. Thankfully, incandescent light bulbs are banned already. You don’t have any reason to use them anymore.
4. Check For Air Leaks
How is checking for air leaks in my home one of the ways to save money on electricity? If you are asking that, I’ll assume you never knew this could reduce energy consumption.
Do you often open windows? Is there enough space from under the door to let air come in? Does your fireplace damper work? Here’s where I’m driving at—air sealing your home is a brilliant way to save on your energy cost.
If you have an AC unit that increases your electric bill, the last thing you want is to incur additional fees. This is precisely the reason you should look for air leaks. Your HVAC system will wind up working far harder than it has to since hot air is being allowed into your house and cool air is leaving. When you combine this with the fact that Summers are growing longer and hotter, your monthly electricity cost will unavoidably rise!
So, check for air leaks now!
5. Change Your Air Filter
Trying to keep track of what needs to be replaced in your home can be challenging. But do you know that an easy way to extend the life of your HVAC system and improve its efficiency (thereby reducing your electric bill over time) is to replace your air filter every three months? Yes, it is. Look at your calendar and set a reminder. If you desperately want to save electricity, you won’t hesitate to change air filters.
6. Keep Your Door Shut
You just learned how checking for air leaks is a smart thing to do when trying to figure out how to save money on electric bill. Apparently, that’s a valid reason why you should always shut the door. If you have kids old enough to run around the house and dash off anytime, chances are your door will be left wide open a lot. As long as the AC unit or furnace is running, don’t let that happen. Close your door always.
7. Don’t Run Your Appliances Too Often
When you own appliances such as dryer, dishwasher, and washer, you have to be cautious about how you use them.
As a caring mom, each time your kid comes with dirty, stained, and smelly pants, you assume the best line of action is to wash and dry them immediately (using the washer, of course). Unfortunately, this is not the best idea. Letting your washer and dryer run just because you need to wash one pair of pants is wasting energy.
If you need anything cleaned right away, use your hands. Have a special laundry day when you can wash a full load of clothes. You can’t use these appliances every day and think you know how to save money on electric bill.
8. Adjust Your Refrigerator
This is one of the minor things you can do if you don’t know how to save on electricity. Examine the settings you have on the refrigerator. Maintaining a temperature of between 35° F and 38° F is a decent general guideline to prevent the appliance from consuming too much energy.
Of course, you can’t turn off the refrigerator. You need it turned on to keep food items and leftovers fresh. But when you adjust the settings in this way, you can stop your refrigerator from using excessive energy to maintain a low temperature while preserving your food.
9. Reduce The Water Heater Temperature
Most people rarely think to check whether the temperature of their water is too high. They keep paying high electric bills and can’t pinpoint what consumes so much energy. When you turn on the tap and have warm water flow out, you think everything is fine. You simply continue with your day. However, you may be squandering between $36 and $61 yearly if your water temperature is set too high.
It’s not a bad idea to set the water heater to 140 degrees, but don’t be surprised when you occasionally get scorching hot water. Also, lowering the temperature to 120 degrees too low may interfere with your dishwasher’s ability to destroy bacteria. Try changing the temperature and discover what suits you best. This is one of the best tips to save money on electric bill.
10. Replace Your Showerhead
If you are looking for ways to lower your electric bill drastically, your showerhead is one of the many places to look at. Basically, reducing the amount of water that you consume daily will positively impact your electricity cost. Hence, I’ll advise you to switch to a 2.5-gallon-per-minute showerhead. You don’t want your water gushing out when it could have flown slowly.
11. Don’t Bathe Three Times A Day
If you want to figure out how to save money on electric bill, cutting back on your shower time is one of the simplest things you can do.
The average American stays in the shower for about 8 minutes. It sure looks like a small amount of time, but according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a standard showerhead pours down about 2.5 gallons within a minute. This means the average American uses around 20 gallons of water each time they bathe. Now imagine bathing three times a day.
Reducing the amount of time you spend in the bathroom won’t save the planet, but it will certainly save you some money on electricity costs. You don’t need to spend a lot of time in the shower to be clean. 5 minutes is enough shower time except you had just been drenched in a sewer.
12. Check For Phantom Energy
Yes, there’s a myth claiming that ghosts consume a lot of energy when they are within one’s home. But don’t freak out. This has nothing to do with ghosts. Phantom energy, also referred to as standby power, is the amount of energy that is consumed as a result of the electronic activity of equipment that is off, on standby, or in sleep mode. There are some appliances that still use energy even when they are not running.
This only means you have to do one thing—unplug your appliances and gadgets if you aren’t using them. The amount of money you’ll save on your electricity bill simply by turning off the light may surprise you.
Did you know phantom energy accounts for 5–10% of the electricity used in homes? That’s energy wasted. But now that you know better, you can prevent this by unplugging all devices when not in use. This is how to save money on electric bill.
13. Ask For Discounts And Incentives
One of the most common ways to save some money when purchasing anything is by asking for a discount. When it comes to learning how to save money on electric bill, you can also apply this simple tactic.
Be honest with yourself. You like to bargain a good deal before spending money. So, ask your local electric company if they have any special offers to help you save money on this household expense.
I’m not guaranteeing that you’ll get a lesser price, but you never know what they may offer. Some electric companies give discounts when you go paperless. Others may offer rebates when you make energy-saving to your house, and if you are lucky, some may offer savings for using electricity during off-peak hours.
Lastly, you may want to consider signing up for your local electric company’s newsletters. They may regularly send emails containing strategies and tips to reduce your electricity bill.
Recap: How To Save Money On Electric Bill
You are probably wondering how much you’ve lost to high electric bills because you didn’t know how to manage energy consumption. Stop regretting. With the numerous energy-saving tips discussed here, you can start spending less money on electricity. However, as you save extra money on lower electric bills, don’t forget to put those savings to good use.
Also, if you know any more tips on how to save money on electric bill that weren’t mentioned in this post, feel free to share them in the comments.
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