Electricity is a valuable (and expensive) resource. Using too much in one month can easily result in high bills. Here are some tips to cut back on energy usage: -Turn off lights when not in use, and use LED light bulbs. This will ensure that energy is only being used when needed, and LED bulbs are very low consumption anyway. -Set your router to turn off when not in use. Many modern routers have an "Eco mode" to turn off the wireless feature at set times. -Use power off-peak. Power companies charge a higher rate when most people are using power. Heat or cool your house before or after peak hours. Check with your power company for peak hours. -Consider using solar or wind. If you use a lot of power, solar or wind generators may be a great choice. Many power companies will even credit your account for producing excess power. You can even hook up a battery system and use solar during peak hours to save. -Insulate your house. Heat rises, so check your top level and make sure it's insulated. I hope this information is useful to you, Have a nice day.
Great tips Jordon. I would also suggest using draught excluders in the home. Draughty front doors can really lower the temperature of your home so it makes sense to block any gaps.
we have loadshedding in South Africa where the government turns off the electricity for an two hours in each area. In a way it is a good idea but not convenient and if they could stop the big companies from having all their lights on permanently it would be great. We use energy saving lights, switch off things that we dont need and instead of using a tumble drier we air out the washing in the sun. To save water we make sure that dishes are washed twice a day and that the bath water is not full. You have some great tips here and thank you for sharing.
Some nice tips here. I would also like to point out, however, that studies have shown repeatedly turning lights on and off can actually raise your electricity bills. If you're going out of a room and you're going to be back in less than 10 minutes or so, it's probably cheaper for you to actually leave the light on rather than turn it off then back on when you re-enter the room! Also always ensure TVs are fully switched off and not just in standby mode, that's an electricity eater too!
Many of the electric companies will also come out and perform an energy audit for free. I haven't had one done but a friend of mine did and she said it was really helpful. Of course there were the givens, like replace windows, but they also offered smaller suggestions that were very affordable or even free.
Thanks for sharing. Those are great tips. I never even thought of turning off my router. Something else is making sure your computer AND monitors are turned off when not in use. My mother hated shutting off the computer and would just let it sleep instead of shut down. I hated it.
Insulating your house is probably the most necessary one, and it's really worth doing as you'll save a lot over long periods of time. Another feature worth having is water heating panels and an insulated tank. Basically, the sun heats the water for you via the panel, you store it in the insulated tank, and then you can use it during the day or night for washing instead of having to pay a bunch of money to heat the water via electrical or gas heaters. All you pay for is the electricity consumed by a small pump that pumps the water.
I've switched all bulbs at home completely to LED and although the savings I get isn't too big it's still a significant enough amount especially considering all I really did was buy something different. The effect is just as good and I get to save myself some extra cash. It really builds up over the course of a year.
I have heard that even when you are not using a device, but it is plugged into a mains - and it doesn't even have to be switched on at the mains - that it still uses and burns electricity. So what we do in our household is plug stuff out when we are not using them. It is a little inconvenient and long, but worth it in the long run.
I use those tips already, but find that energy efficienct bulbs help a bunch too. They cost more upfront, but last forever and save on your bill. If you haven't tried them you should check them out.
This may sound like a dumb sentence or a blatantly obvious sentiment, but I really think that people need to hear it: Remember to turn off lights in your house whenever you are away. Remember to unplug things and make sure that there aren't lights or TV's plugged in whenever you leave your house.
I would not mind if my electricity were to be shut off for a couple of hours at a time as long as I knew about it ahead of time and it saved me some money. It would be a great excuse to go out for a stroll on a nice warm day. I make sure that everyone in my family turns off lights when they are not in a room, and we bundle up with extra clothes and blankets as opposed to turning up the heat in the winter.
Other ways to save electricity include making sure you wash a full load of washing when using the washing machine instead of two smaller loads. Only use the tumble dryer when you really have to. Also using the microwave to cook vegetables instead of on the cooker uses less electricity. My favourite tip though is to avoid using the iron as much as possible to save electricity. Great excuse to avoid ironing!
Electricity is considered as one of the most essential things in the world today. Almost everything if not all is powered by electricity and it is one of the greatest contributor of bills in a household. These are some of my tips to save electricity 1. Always unplug any unused appliances. Plugged appliances even though they are turned off still consume electricity. 2. Turn off lights when not needed. Used led lights than flourescent or in andecent lights. 3. LED monitors are more effecient and energy savers than its counterpart. 4. Open windows for ventilation to avoid too much use of aircon. 5. Ironing should be schedule and plan properly.
Here are some additional tips. The most expensive things we do in our home with electricity tend to be heating and cooling it so I'll focus on those. #1 - Insulate the home and attic properly, plug air leaks and upgrade windows #2 - Keep the home cooler in winter and wear warmer clothes, every degree costs money #3 - Look into dual energy heating where you use gas when it's cheaper and electric when it's not That third tip can be a game changer on the cost of heating and cooling your home. When the temperature reaches a certain point you begin to pay more for electric heating and this is a good time to switch over to gas. On the flip side your electricity rate during the summer is likely lower since you have the dual-energy rates so you save a little on cooling too. Look into dual-energy heating, or a thermo-pump, today.
Thank you jordonposey for sharing this. I never thought about saving money on electricity, you got me interested there. I really would love to save money on electricity since I use a lot of devices and it's costing more each month because I spend more than 10 hours daily on electronic devices. It's crazy that I actually spend that amount of time but it's because of my work. I think I'm going to try out your tips since they seem to be reasonable, also the other comments seem to be reasonable in helping to reduce the cost of electricity and save money. I also think that's very important to put each devices in different outlets and not on the same outlet breaker and extension cable, because it reduces stress which might in the end cause your electricity to have a breakdown and burn your devices.
Thank you very much for this handy list, jordonposey! It's especially crucial for me, because I live in a country where we're subjected to load shedding from time to time. I already observe some of the things you mentioned, but I would be very interested in the solar and wind generators. I'll have to do some research on those and see if it's something our budget can stretch to
Thank you for the great thread and fantastic tips! I was going the add the unplugging idea, but lots of people already know about this and have mentioned it. I saw a news article recently about a woman who was saving $64 per month just by unplugging electronics or whatever was not being used. That's a huge savings and motivation to get me to work harder on keeping things unplugged!
I live in an old house (built for mill workers in my tiny town in the 1940's) and it is incredibly drafty. We tried sealing windows off this winter and it barely helped. We sealed as much as we could but I still felt cool wind coming in. The electric heaters we used to heat our 1892 sq ft ended up driving our electricity bill up to 500 dollars and up! We are trying to recuperate from that and hoping for a less expensive summer. Thanks for the tips that I can put into place to try and take the edge off now.
