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There are two simple parts to saving money on your electric bill: 1) reduce  usage and 2) reduce energy waste. The biggest changes you can make will be to use power hogs less and improve their efficiency. . Power hogs are all of the things in your house that change temperature — things like the water heater (if its electric) A/C or heat (insert video on heat pumps and heat strips), refrigerator, and oven.  Focusing on these areas, will give you the most energy savings, both for your wallet and for the environment.

So, I’ve gathered a list of 10 ways you can reduce your power use:

#1 Air Leaks

One of the largest energy demands in our homes is climate control, and you can improve its efficiency by ensuring your house is sealed. If your doors and windows have daylight around them, then you are dumping air (air that you already paid to cool) out into the neighborhood! These gaps are easy and inexpensive to seal up. Simple things like weather stripping and some simple door adjustments can seal off excessive air leaks. We will have videos to help you fix this soon, so stay tuned! ! You can even take it a step further and seal around every single wall penetration you have: electrical outlets, plumbing pipes, lighting, and the like (Add video when made as link). You can also be losing air within the duct work itself. If you are willing and able to crawl into the attic, then an inspection of your A/C ductwork is worth your time. Link to air duct inspection video

#2. Insulation

Even if your house is sealed tighter than a submarine, it house also suffers from energy loss through the walls, floors, and ceilings of your home. There are many places in your house you can add insulation if it’s not present already, but your attic and garage can be two large sources of energy loss if they aren’t insulated or are insulated poorly. It can get pricey to insulate an attic or garage, but we will be tackling this in upcoming videos, come back soon to learn more! .

Other places to look to improve power hog efficiency via insulation are to ensure insulation is found around can ceiling lights and A/C ducts, hot-water heater pipes, and the hot water heater itself. Adding an external tank insulation blanket (like this one) is an easy way to reduce wasted energy.

#3. Adjust your Hot Water Heat Temp

This one is a free and easy way to reduce energy usage from a power hog.. I’ve created a short video here on how to do this safely. Most hot water heaters come set from the factory between 120 – 130°F. For most households this is hotter than it needs to be, especially if you find yourself always cracking the cold water side of the faucet because the hot water alone is too hot. Cutting the temperature back to 110°F can make a difference on your power bill and you’ll hardly notice a difference in the water temperature.

#4. Stop Wasting Hot Water

Although I am not a Dad, I feel the Dad power creeping in. I can smell it when someone touches the thermostat.. And when hot water gets wasted. Let me ask you.. Do you turn on the hot water side of the faucet, wash your hands with cold or lukewarm water and turn the water off before the hot water actually gets to your sink? If so, you just wasted a TON of energy. When you open the hot water side of any faucet in the house you are letting water flow from the hot water tank through the lines to your faucet, the tank then refills with cold water, and the hot water that never got to you sits in the pipes, becoming cold again. Not only are you are wasting hot water that you already paid for by letting it sit in your pipes,  but also, the hot water heater has to turn on again to heat the cold water you’ve introduced to the tank. You just spun your power meter for no reason at all (not to mention you added another cycle to the life-limited components in your hot water heater)! Stop using the hot water side of the faucet if you’re not going to wait for the hot water anyway!

#5. Change your A/C Filter, Often!

Again, climate control is a POWER HOG. If you are choking out your a/c system with a dirty filter then not only are you wasting energy but you could be overworking your system and contributing to a premature failure of the components. Set a calendar reminder on your phone or computer to help you remember to change it monthly. If you don’t know how to change the filter, or figure out what size you need, check out this quick post. Also consider hiring a local A/C company to do routine maintenance on your system – it’s worth it.

#6. Interior lighting

I feel like by now everyone knows that the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs use more electricity than fluorescents or LED’s. The obvious upgrade is some energy efficient LED’s like these from Amazon for less than $2 each. The “Old-School” bulbs waste a large amount of energy in the form of heat, which you may not want in the summer. If you want more control, or are often forgetting to turn off lamps or other lights, and don’t  mind spending a few more bucks, then smart bulbs are the way of the future. There are many different types of smart bulbs, from programmable bulbs, to those that connect to wifi, bluetooth, google, or Alexa (for example: links). There are also timers and remotes that plug into outlets that can be used as a less expensive option to “automate” some lights in your house.

#7 Outdoor lighting

Outdoor lighting is important for security, but there are ways to reduce the energy usage. You can replace your landscape lighting with solar options and even replace motion sensor or security lights with solar options. I have used these (insert link) security lights and have been very happy with their performance but, I live in Florida, if you live somewhere less sunny, there may or may not be enough solar energy to keep the batteries charged in your solar lighting for all-night operation. The battery and solar panel technology is improving and becoming more affordable all the time but just be realistic with your expectations. If you need some direction on how to pick out solar lighting, check out this video where I show an awesome alternative to adding exterior motion sensor lights and saving the expense of running new electrical. Another way to save on these exterior lights is installing “dusk-to-dawn” sensors or lights, which automatically turn off the lights when it’s light outside, which is great to remove the need to remember to do it myself.  I found the add-on type of sensor to be unreliable, bulky, and just not aesthetically pleasing for our light fixtures so I picked up these bulbs from Phillips that have built in sensors and so far I’m pleased with them.

#8. Install a Programmable Thermostat

Remembering to change your thermostat before you rush out of the door in the morning can be a challenge, but programmable thermostats are here to save you! There are options for all budgets, including Nest or Google Home thermostats that allow you to control your home temperature when you are not there. Basic programmable thermostats, like this one for under $75 from Honeywell, work well and can save you big on your energy bill. I work for several property managers and people that are not familiar with programmable thermostats seem to have trouble figuring these out so I made a quick video on  how to program these things here.  

#9. Window Coverings

The Goal here is to use UV light to your advantage. In the summer, UV light and the heat carried with it is your enemy. Installing blinds, curtains, or shutters and keeping them closed during the day will help reduce the cost of cooling your home. If you have the blinds closed during the day but you want natural light, just consider it costs less than $17 per year to operate an LED bulb for an average of 6 hrs per day. It’s probably cheaper to use your lights vs paying for the heat added by the UV light. Another option is window tint. I didn’t mention replacing your windows with energy efficient windows to this list because an investment like that can cost thousands of dollars and take many years to see a real return on your investment. An alternative is window tint. Chances are there is a local company that specializing in window tint (even some car tint places will do it) but you can also tackle this yourself with window tint like this. This will let you keep some natural light, but will block some of the heat.

In the winter, the UV light can help add heat to your home but as soon as that light is indirect the cold air on the glass could be causing heat to transfer out faster than it’s coming in, wool curtains can help insulate against heat loss through the glass.

#10. Get a Toaster Oven

Seriously, a toaster oven is the best kitchen appliance for the money. It can replace your full sized oven for most meals, saving you from paying to heat up the whole oven when you don’t need the whole thing. A basic model can be had for less than $30, but I have to recommend this one from Cuisanart that also has an Air-fryer setting. We use this all the time! Seriously, we hardly use our full-sized oven any more for anything but baking. It’s honestly the best $200 bucks I’ve ever spent on a kitchen appliance! I don’t know how I survived without it.

Bonus

A bonus tip that can help you save energy is meal prepping. By only turning on the oven and stove one day a week and cooking everything then, you are reducing the heat-up costs of your appliances.

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