9 Ways To Cut Your Electric Bill By Up To 75 Percent
In these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to save money on your monthly expenses wherever you can. One of the easiest ways to do this is by reducing your electricity bill.
According to recent studies, you can reduce your electric bill by up to 75% simply by making a few changes to your everyday habits!
In this blog post, we’ll discuss some easy ways to save on energy costs, save the environment, and keep more money in your wallet.
Here are 9 simple ways to reduce your electric bill:
1. Turn off the lights when you leave a room
It’s always tempting to wander from room to room, leaving a trail of illumination in your wake, because you think you’ll be back soon. Next thing you know, you’ve been downstairs for three hours, while the bedroom light has been on the whole time!
Turning off the lights when you leave a room helps conserve energy, and it’s good for the environment.
2. Use energy-efficient light bulbs
If you’re home, at some point during the day, you’ll need to switch on a light. For most people, especially night owls, it’s not uncommon for their lights to stay on for several hours a day.
Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs is a great way to reduce your electric bill, because these bulbs use less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs. What’s more, you won’t necessarily be sacrificing quality or brightness – many energy-efficient bulbs are just as good as, if not better than, traditional bulbs.
You can buy LED or CFL light bulbs at most hardware or online stores, and they last much longer than incandescent bulbs.
3. Unplug electronics when they’re not in use
Believe it or not, many appliances continue to draw power even when they’re turned off. This is called ” phantom power .”
Phantom power is a big contributor to energy waste, so unplugging electronics when they’re not in use is a great way to reduce your electric bill.
TVs, DVD players, and microwaves are just some of the appliances that continue to consume electricity when they’re plugged in but not turned on. According to Save on Energy, phantom power may account for up to 10% of your yearly electricity costs.
Find out more about what “phantom power” is.
4. Defrost your freezer regularly and vacuum the coils on your refrigerator
Your freezer and refrigerator consume energy constantly, running non-stop, 24/7, 365 days a year.
One way to reduce the amount of electricity your freezer uses is by defrosting it regularly, as defrosting makes it run more efficiently. How? Because the cold air doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain a low temperature when there’s no ice buildup.
You can buy a special defroster tool that helps you do this, or you can just put a bowl of hot water in the freezer and swap it out every 15-20 minutes.
Another way to reduce energy consumption is by vacuuming the coils on your refrigerator. The coils collect a lot of dust and dirt, which makes the refrigerator work harder and use more energy to cool down.
You can vacuum the coils yourself with a brush attachment, or you can get a professional in to have them cleaned.
Some refrigerators come with a self-cleaning coil function that does this automatically, so check your refrigerator’s manual to see if yours has this feature.
5. Cook food using the microwave instead of the oven
The oven is one of the most energy-intensive appliances in your home. It uses more electricity to cook food than the microwave does, so using the microwave whenever possible is a great way to reduce your electric bill.
Plus, microwaving food is usually faster and easier than cooking it in the oven.
There are, of course, a plethora of other appliances that are far more efficient than either the microwave or the conventional oven, and we talk extensively about them on this site.
Energy efficient cooking appliances:
6. Hang clothes to dry instead of using the dryer
The dryer is another big energy consumer in your home. Perhaps the biggest. Not only does it guzzle electricity, it can also damage your clothes over time.
Hanging clothes to dry not only saves you money on your electric bill, but it’s also better for your clothes – the colors won’t fade as quickly, and the material will last longer.
7. Take shorter showers
Electric showers are some of the biggest energy consumers you’ll find in your home. A 10-minute shower costs between $0.35 and $0.50, depending on the wattage. Which means, for those who shower daily (hopefully that’s everyone!), you could be spending $15 per month/$180 per year on showers alone!
By reducing your shower time by a quarter, you could see savings of up to $45 a year. Not bad.
8. Insulate your home properly
Proper insulation can help keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, reducing your need for air conditioning and heating.
Electric heaters and air conditioners are two of the biggest energy consumers in your home, and insulation can help reduce their use – which will in turn reduce your electric bill.
Insulating your home properly is a big job, but it’s well worth the effort.
9. Replace your old appliances with energy-efficient models
Appliances that use a lot of electricity naturally cost more to run than their efficient counterparts.
Here at Low Watt Appliances, our aim is to find the most energy-efficient appliances for your home, so you get built-in savings from the moment of purchase. And it just so happens that one of the best ways to save on your electricity bill is by using energy-efficient appliances.
In general, the more watts an appliance uses, the more electricity it consumes. So before you go out and buy a new appliance, be sure to check its wattage rating.
Which appliances use the most electricity?
We’ve mentioned several of them above, but here’s a list of the biggest energy-hungry household appliances:
- clothes dryers
- ovens
- showers
- heaters
- air conditioners
- kettles
- toasters
- hair dryers
Choosing low watt appliances to save money on your electricity bill
Some high wattage appliances are unavoidable, and simply replacing them with more energy-efficient ones – i.e. getting rid of your oven in favor of an air fryer – might not be possible or desirable.
That’s why we’ve made it our mission to find lower wattage alternatives to almost all popular household appliances, so at the very least you can choose an oven that won’t cost an arm and a leg to run, if an air fryer won’t do the trick.
Check out our low watt appliance lists below to see some of the most energy-efficient appliances on the market.
Low watt heating and cooling appliances
Conclusion
As we hope we’ve made clear, reducing your monthly electricity bill in a considerable way doesn’t have to be difficult. There are a lot of ways to do it without making big changes or compromises.
Start with some of the tips we’ve outlined in this post, and see how much of a difference they make. Chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
And if you’re looking for more energy-efficient appliances to help reduce your electric bill even further, be sure to check out our low watt appliance posts.
Happy saving!
