You can eat smaller portions and buy your groceries in bulk. You can shop at thrift stores or give up clothes shopping entirely for a year (or longer). You can trade in all of your streaming media subscriptions and only use the library. You can rent (or buy) a smaller home and cook all of your meals yourself.
You have hundreds of options. In this article we are going to teach you all of the different and simple things you can do to save money on your energy bill.
Shop Around
Before we get into the littler things that you can do yourself, let’s talk about starting at the root of the problem: your power company and its exorbitant fees.
A lot of you reading this live in states where the energy market is highly regulated and you might not have a lot of choice as to who provides your power. If you live in a deregulated state like Texas or Pennsylvania, however, you can shop around for the best deal. There are a lot of sites out there like http://www.localelectricitycompanies.com/texas/ that allow you to compare the different providers in your area so that you can get the best value for your money. Shop around if you have the ability to!
Every Day Changes You Can Make
Believe it or not there is more to saving money on power than simply turning off the lights when you leave a room (though that’s a good habit to get into). Here are other things that you can do at home to reduce your energy consumption and, by extension, lower your power bills.
- Hand wash your dishes. Hand washing your dishes in the sink reduces two things: the power you would have used with the dish washer and the amount of energy needed to heat the water to a high temperature inside the machine.
- Hand wash at least some of your clothes. Under and foundational garments, wool sweaters, certain fabrics all need to be hand washed anyway. Save the washing machine for sturdier things like jeans, t-shirts, etc. The more things you’re able to hand wash, the fewer loads of laundry you’ll do.
- Hang dry your clothes, at least when it is warm. Setting up a clothes line isn’t difficult. If you live in an apartment, a drying rack will accomplish the same goal. Hanging your clothes dry is better for them and reduces your power consumption.
- Use your laptop! If you aren’t having a family movie night, watch your streaming media on your laptop or tablet. Why power up a television set if you don’t have to? While you’re at it, use an eReader to read books so that you don’t have to turn on a lamp when you read in bed at night.
- Wear sweaters, use fans. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book: set your thermostat ten degrees colder in the winter and ten hotter in the summer. Compensate with clothing instead of electricity.
- Take colder and shorter showers. Long hot showers are great but they are terrible for your electric and water bills. Warm up the water just enough that you don’t feel freezing. It’s better for your skin and hair that way. Then, if you can, only turn on the water when you’re wetting yourself down and rinsing yourself off and your hair out.
Spending Money to Save Money
In addition to the smaller things that you can do every day, there are other tools that you can use that will help you save money on your power bill. You might have to spend some money on them now, but they’ll more than pay for themselves in savings.
- Switch to LED bulbs. LED bulbs last longer and require less power than every other type of bulb on the market. And, unlike CFLs, LEDs don’t have to “warm up” to their advertised wattage.
- Switch to surge protectors that prevent vampire power. Vampire power (sometimes called phantom power or idle power) is a real problem in most households. A lot of it can be avoided simply by unplugging things. But, for setups like your entertainment center or desktop computing system, using a surge protector saves time and resources. Make sure you’re using a surge protector that will keep vampire power from inflating your electric bills.
Obviously you can also install energy efficient appliances, solar panels, etc. For many people though, those big purchases are difficult to accommodate. You will find, though, that using the simple suggestions mentioned here your power bill will be drastically reduced.
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