How To Save Money on Your Utility Bill

On average people spend thousands of dollars on their utility bill every single year. Did you know that the average household spends roughly $2,200 annually?

Most people believe that to be able to be more energy efficient it means that they need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on solar panels and even geothermal heating systems for their house. However, this is not the case. You can be more energy efficient and save hundreds of dollars on your utility bill by doing just a few simple changes in your average day.

1. Finding the Right Size for Air Conditioners

If you are wanting or need a window air conditioner, you’ll want to make sure you find one that fits the needs of the room you are putting it in. You’ll need to purchase one that matches the needs of the room based on the square footage. If the window air conditioner is too big for the square footage of the room, it will use more energy than is necessary.

2. Use Your Fans Wisely

Ceiling fans are meant to work great in conjunction with your cooling and heating units. When you are buying a ceiling fan, you should look for ceiling fans that can also do a reverse direction. The reverse rotation is useful in the winter time because it will push the heat downward.

3. Don’t Forget About Fireplaces

Fireplaces are a great way to heat your house, but they can also allow heated air that you pay for escape. When you are not using your fireplace make sure the damper is closed, so it is not letting out the heat that you paid for out. You can also consider purchasing a high-efficiency fireplace insert, a pellet stove or even a wood burning stove. These don’t allow air exchange between the outdoor and indoor air.

4. Consider Getting a Home Energy Audit

If you hire an auditor to do a simple checkup of your home, it will help you determine where you might be losing energy and even losing money. It will also help you know how to correct it. A lot of different utility companies offer this type of service for free.

5. Purchase Energy Efficient Appliances

Consider replacing your current appliances with energy efficient appliances instead. When you decide to purchase energy efficient appliances make sure to look for energy star certified types of models. Energy Star certified models are held to higher standards than just everyday energy efficient appliances.

6. Clean Your Vents

Make sure you clean out your vents regularly. It not only has a ton of benefits for your health, but it will also help you save money. Cleaning your vents and ducts and making sure to replace the filters will help them keep them in top running order.

7. Cross Ventilation

If you open windows in rooms across from each other, it creates cross ventilation which helps generate a nice breeze in your home. It’s an easy and cheap way to cool it down and save money on your utility bill at the same time.

8. Clean Your Fridge

Make sure to clean your fridge regularly. It helps if you clean the fan and vents in your refrigerator regularly also. Cleaning your vents and fan will help your refrigerator function much more efficiently.

9. Make sure to Turn Down Your Water Heater

Besides cooling and heating, water heaters use the highest energy in the majority of households. Most water heaters in houses are set at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It helps if you change the temperature of your water heater to a lower setting to help save money. Turning down your water heater to 120 Fahrenheit will still be plenty hot for all of your needs.

10. Change Your Light Bulbs

If you still have fluorescent light bulbs, you should upgrade to LED light bulbs instead. LED light bulbs use a fraction of energy, and they provide better quality light. These types of light bulbs also last a lot longer than regular fluorescent light bulbs.

11. Install Different Types of Lights

Instead of just having lights that you leave on all the time you should install timers for lights, motion sensor lights, and dimmers. These types of lights are very efficient for the outside of your house instead of keeping your outdoor lights on all the time.

12. Use Smart Devices

Consider upgrading to internet connected appliances, or smart appliances that can be checked up on from a tablet or smartphone. This option gives you remote access to any of your appliances and lights, to make sure to help you save energy. You won’t ever have to worry about leaving lights on or a specific appliance turned on that will waste a lot of energy, which would be wasted money.

13. Make Sure You Unplug

A substantial part of your electricity used inside your household is used to power your electronics in your house, even when they are turned off and not being used. Make sure you unplug the cords to your devices when they aren’t in use. You can also use smart power strips that will shut down the power to all of the electronics that are plugged into that power strip, without having to unplug each one.

14. Install Low Flow Showerheads

Instead of spending tons of money on hot water you can start taking shorter showers, or you can install a low flow shower head. Low flow showerheads, especially the aerating variety, still have excellent water pressure like the regular ones, but they use air instead of more water to deliver the water pressure.

These ideas can help you be more energy efficient and save money on your utility bill just by switching, upgrading or changing a few things that you do in your everyday life. Doing these simple things will allow you to be able to save money on your utility bill every year.

If you have any other questions about ways to save money on your utility bill feel free to contact me.