Home » Home & Garden » Home Improvement

How to Lower Electricity Bills

Ranked #10,923 in Home & Garden, #175,137 overall

Lower Electricity Bills Today and Save Money

The cost of electricity in the US keeps rising, but that doesn't mean your electric bill has to go up, too. In fact, if you can do these few things in your life on a regular basis, you'll begin learning how to lower electricity bills in no time with these great tips. Some of them might surprise you!

When my husband and I moved into a new house in 2006, we were knocked off our feet by our first electricity bill of the summer - an astounding $601.72. Living in Arizona, we tend to see higher bills in the summer from the increase in the need for air conditioning but I'd never seen an electric bill that high. We needed some much needed information on how to get lower electricity bills in a big hurry.

One year later, for the same month in which we saw the $600 bill, we had managed to cut our bill by 42%. I'll give you some great ideas on how you can squeeze some savings from your bill, too.

Photo by poyang / CC BY-SA 2.0

Light bulbs that lower your bills

Lighting is a significant factor in your electricity bill. It seems like it should be a little thing but when you stop to count how many light bulbs and lights you're really using, the cost of your lighting adds up quickly.

Turn off lights when not being used - This really does save you money! My husband, trained by his father, was forever nagging us about lights left on when we left a room. I tried replying that I was sure the amount saved was so minimal that it wouldn't matter. Then we did the math together. A single 60 watt light bulb left on for an extra hour a day costs $2.54 in additional electricity usage a year. See, doesn't sound like much, right? Then start adding up all the light bulbs in your house. Don't forget that many light fixtures and lamps have more than one bulb. I had 42 60 watt light bulbs on just one floor of my house. If each of those were left on for an hour a day when no one was in the room, it would cost me an extra $106.60 a year in electricity bills.

The point is, each little thing alone doesn't seem like much. Then start adding them up. It's the combination of a number of small changes that makes a huge difference.

Replace your bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs - This is the easiest tip of them all. Replace those 60 watt bulbs with 25 watt compact fluorescent bulbs and start saving right away. These bulbs produce the same light as a regular bulbs, although they take a minute to warm up to their full brightness. At 25 watts, they're also 58% more efficient than the 60 watt bulb and they last longer, saving you money in replacement costs. They cost a few bucks more but it's well worth it. We calculated the savings of replacing our six recessed floodlights in the kitchen with CFL bulbs at more than $70 per year.

Globe 48426 23-Watt Mini Compact Fluorescent Spiral Bulb (100-Watt Incandescent Equivalent), Cool White, 4 Pack

Amazon Price: (as of 02/14/2012)

Heating and Cooling

Follow a schedule

Air conditioning and heating expenses are a huge share of your electricity bills. Using a few helpful tools and following a schedule will keep those bills to a minimum.

Use a programmable thermostat and stick to a high and low temperature reading. A programmable thermostat stops you from fiddling with the temperature and then forgetting you left your air conditioner running for an extra hour or two...or eight. I've been using one now for 10 years and wouldn't have it any other way.

Have your heating and cooling systems checked regularly to make sure they're running efficiently. If these are not maintained properly, they can begin to use more electricity, costing you more money over time.

Keep shades drawn in the summer and block as much of the sun's heat from entering as you can. In the winter, do the opposite and let that sun help you heat your house.

Did you know that one air conditioning system costs 10 times more to run than one ceiling fan? Turn off the air conditioning and sit under a ceiling fan.

Photo by frogbelly / CC BY 2.0

Super Silent Ceiling Fan

Quiet as a mouse

Hunter 25517 Summer Breeze 52-Inch 5-Blade Ceiling Fan, White with White/Bleached Oak Blades

Amazon Price: $86.76 (as of 02/14/2012)

We initially had a large ceiling fan right over our living room sofa where we sat to watch TV at night. However, the ceiling fan seemed so loud, we needed to have the TV up to hear over the fan. This quiet fan keeps us cool and doesn't interfere with our watching TV.

Appliances

Can't really live without them but they're electricity hungry

In total, however, it's the sum of all of our appliances and electric devices that use unseemly amounts of power. The most energy consuming appliances in order, based on 2001 statistics, is a pool/spa heater, a pool/spa pump, your refrigerator, and a stand-alone freezer. You can cut your expenses on these items as well by unplugging them when not in use, getting smaller appliances, or buying energy efficient appliances.

Get rid of your unused appliances. Have a freezer or spare refrigerator that you don't really use? First, contact your electric company. They might give you a credit and take it off your hands as a savings of any electricity benefits them, too. We have such a deal available now in Phoenix.

Air dry your laundry, If you can swing it (and with kids or a large family that's not always possible). Washers and dryers consume lots of electricity.

Use energy efficient appliances and make them do a full load of work when you use them. For example, don't run an extra refrigerator if you can get away with one. Don't run a half load of dishes or half a load of laundry. It's much more cost effective to run full loads whenever you can.

Did you know that it costs an extra $2.63 a month to run a 50" plasma TV than a 40" plasma TV? These are things you don't consider when you're buying them but they end up costing you more than you think in the long run.

The difference between a standard 17 cubic foot refrigerator and a 14 cubic foot refrigerator is about an extra $1.74/month!

Swimming Pools

Taken for granted

We did not have a pool in our old house and the expense of running one was a surprise. Especially since we'd elected a self-cleaning system to save us time. We knew that would cost us up front but we didn't realize how much it would cost us each month going forward.

Turn off your pool and pump system during peak electricity hours. Have any cool features like a waterfall, spa jets, or lights? Keep those off, too, until your electricity peak time is up.

Photo by Dennis Wong / CC BY 2.0

Electricity Saving Information

Great resources

Your electricity company wants to help, they just don't always make it that obvious. Check their website for ideas on how to lower electricity bills and ways in which they might reimburse you for energy efficient moves you make in your own home.

Log in online to your electric company and check for a page on tips. Almost all of them have plenty of helpful information for how you, in your particular part of the country, can best reduce your electricity expense.

Go for a fixed rate plan but be careful! Every time I've tried to do that, the electric company wants me to pay a monthly payment that is higher than the average of my past 12 months' bills. To me, this doesn't make sense. Not only will it not lower my electricity bill, I'll be paying them extra money they won't have earned. I'd rather keep that money in my pocket.

Checking the Kilowatt Usage

Do your own homework

Since it's nearly impossible to track the wattage and usage of all of your appliances, use your meter as your guide and run some champion/challenger tests. This is a test where you use whatever plan you've devised for lower electricity bills (such as a programmable thermostat) and track your meter for a couple of days. Then run it another way for the same time frame and check the meter again. Did one method use less energy than the other by showing a lower meter change?

Going for the Sun and Wind

DIY electricity

According to the Energy Information Administration's Official Energy Statistics from the US Government, the average cost of a residential kilowatt hour in 2008 was $0.1049. In 2009, prices have risen to an average of $0.1128 - a 7.5% increase. During a time of rising unemployment and decreased incomes, this increase could be a budget knockout for some families.

What if you want an even bigger cut? What if you you're not afraid to stop relying on the electric companies to be your main source of power? Many residents are moving to new, owner managed sources of electricity and you can do the same.

Find out the secret more and more consumers are using to cut their own electric bill today!

Solar Energy

Leverage the sun

It's true - more consumers are looking for their own sources of power rather than relying on the increasing rates of electricity companies. Paying for a system installation though is prohibitively expensive. Why do they make it nearly impossible for us to utilize these great sources of power ourselves?

Saving Energy with Solar Power : Using Homemade Solar Panels: by expertvillage | video info

244 ratings | 271,534 views

curated content from YouTube

More Tips to Lower Electricity Bills

Resources to help you save