Are you trying to reduce your electricity bill but don’t know where to start? Let’s face it, we use electricity in everything we do — from laundry, cooking on the stovetop to using the lights. Don’t sweat it. There are plenty of approaches to lower your electricity bill, and here are five tips on how you can do it.
1. Keep Records of Your Past Electricity
The first thing you need to do is track your energy usage. You can do so by estimating how much electricity you use per day. Then, you can calculate your monthly electricity bill.
It’s important to note that electricity’s peak hour rate is higher than the off-peak rate. Thus, avoid doing your laundry at peak hours. You can save electricity and money by washing your clothes at night.
Another example is you can use fans over air conditioners. If the weather is bearable, use a fan. Or you can switch on the air conditioner for a few hours per day and switch it off. The same goes for winters. Use blankets and floor heaters. When you leave your home to work, make sure to switch off your electricity.
2. Use Energy-saving Lights
Yes, that’s right. Use LED and energy-saving lights to save a considerable part of your electricity bill. For this, you need to understand which lights are better in terms of cost and energy efficiency. If you want to reduce your electricity even further, make sure to use natural light during the day.
Also, you don’t need to work with four to five lights if you can manage with just one light in your room. And doing so will benefit you in two ways. First, it brings down your electricity bill. Second, it reduces the heat production from those extra lights and, as a result, indirectly eliminates the use of coolers for your house.
3. Home Insulation
If you don’t know this by now, home cooling and heating are the biggest culprits behind high electricity bills. And guess what? It’s also the best part for cost-cutting possibilities. How do you cut costs?
Insulate your home — making it resistant to heat loss in the winter and also keeps it cool in the summer. Here are some examples you can insulate your house:
- Use thick curtains to maintain a pleasant temperature locked inside the house.
- Seal the chimney hole in the summer.
- Add an insulating layer over your doors and windows.
Insulate your home to reduce the electricity bill and maintain a soothing temperature for your comfort.
4. Install Solar Panels
This is the most obvious and the most used alternative for electricity throughout the world. By introducing a solar-powered system in your home, you can reduce your electricity bill by up to 50%. And the best thing about solar panels is that now you can run a full-fledged home.
You can place the solar panels anywhere in your house where the sun directly hits the panel’s glass and save a good amount of energy for the whole day. You can also charge a few extra batteries for later use. Isn’t that easy? All you have to do is get the best quality solar panels, and they are good enough to supply your home needs.
5. Smart Use of Your Home Appliances
In this time and age, we use a lot of home appliances. But there are some ways to monitor and reduce them with a few easy tricks.
Wash dishes on your own or run full dishwasher loads. Don’t do smaller loads because they pretty much use the same amount of energy. You can also air-dry your dishes. All you have to do is open the door and let it dry.
Another tip you can apply to reduce your electricity bill is to turn off your coffee maker after you’re done with it. Coffee makers can run all day. That means it uses energy even when it’s not on. All you have to do is switch off and unplug your coffee maker. Trust us; you will save a lot of money!
Another similar appliance is the dryer. Ask yourself if it is necessary to use one? You can save a lot of money by air-drying your clothes. But if you really must use it, try running the dryer at night when electricity use is off-peak.
Conclusion
With these five tips, you can reduce your electricity bill. All you have to do is re-evaluate your electricity usage. Make sure to use natural light as much as possible. Go easy on the air-conditioner and heater. Switch to energy-saving appliances and only use them when it’s necessary.