No matter where you live, chances are you’d benefit from saving money on your monthly electric bill. We listed 5 simple and cost-effective ways below to help you reduce your energy consumption and lower your electric bills:
- Program your thermostat: according to Energy Star, setting your thermostat temperature at 68℉ in the wintertime and 78℉ in the summertime is optimal if you’re trying to save some money. A general rule of thumb is keeping your thermostat temperature settings as high as possible in the summertime and as low as possible in the wintertime, especially when you’re away from home.
- Keep lights off when not in use: remembering to turn off the lights when you exit a room is an excellent habit to lower your electric energy consumption. And during the day, draw your blinds or curtains and take advantage of natural sunlight to brighten your home.
- Use LED light bulbs: swapping out your regular light bulbs for LED bulbs is a great way to reduce electric energy. LED bulbs not only have a longer lifetime expectancy of 25,000 hours (saving you from making frequent trips to the store), they also use more than 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs.
- Run full dishwasher loads: waiting for your dishwasher to fill up and packing it with a full load will reduce the amount of times you need to run it and thus save you water, energy, and money in the long run.
- Take shorter showers: (assuming your water heater is electric) water heaters consume large amounts of energy to heat up water. Simply reducing your showers by a couple of minutes and cutting back on your hot water usage can make a big difference in lowering your electric bill.