Everyone spends money each month on energy costs whether you’re lucky enough to have your choice of energy providers in Texas or not. Regardless of how much money you’re spending on energy every four weeks, there’s always room for you to reduce your expenses by following some of these simple tips. If you’re ready to start accumulating some real savings each month, you can get started right away.
1. Turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer
Of all the things in our homes that use energy, our heating and cooling systems use the most by far. If you just lower your thermostat by a few degrees in the winter and raise it a few degrees in the summer, you can really save a lot of energy. It doesn’t seem like a few degrees would make much of a difference, but that’s simply not the case. If you have a programmable thermostat in your home you can save even more energy by taking the time to set it up. Programmable thermostats prevent your heating and cooling system from running all day long. Instead, they control your system only when it’s needed – when you’re home!
2. Take shorter showers
While taking a shorter shower does a lot when it comes to conserving water, it can also help you save energy. Water heaters use a lot of energy, especially if it’s an old-fashioned tank model. The longer you stay under the shower head, the more money you’re racking up on the meter outside. If you can limit yourself to a five or ten minute shower, you’ll save countless gallons of water each month and lots of energy by reducing your water heater’s use.
3. Wash your dishes by hand
Dishwashers are certainly convenient. I’ve never loved doing dishes myself, and there’s a reason dishwashers are the lowest paid laborers in the restaurant business. Doing dishes isn’t fun, but doing them by hand can really save you tons of energy. Dishwashers waste the most energy when they’re run without a full load. Appliances like dishwashers and washing machines use the same amount of energy no matter how empty they are, so it’s particularly important to always load them up to the brim if you are going to use them. If you’ve only got a few bowls to wash out, use some elbow grease instead. You’ll reduce your energy use dramatically.
4. Air dry your clothes
There was a time when people always used a clothesline to dry out their laundry, and honestly there’s not much reason not to. Unless it’s precipitating outside, clothes will often dry just as quickly in the sun as they will during a tumble cycle. Plus, taking advantage of a nice day reduces the amount of energy you use to dry your clothes to zero. Hanging a clothesline is as simple as it comes in terms of ways to save energy. Don’t keep tumbling your dollars away and hang a line somewhere around your house today!
5. Replace all your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
The days of incandescent light bulbs are over. After all, they’ve been the market standard since Thomas Edison’s day, and in truth they put out more energy as heat than they do as light. These days compact fluorescent bulbs have taken the helm. Not only do CFLs last up to six times as long as a single incandescent bulb, they are extremely efficient in comparison. You only need a fraction of the wattage of what an incandescent bulb would need to produce an equivalent amount of light. If you play your cards right you might even be able to get a stockpile of CFLs for free from your utility company.
Saving money on your energy bills comes down to reducing your consumption. The more of your energy-wasting habits you cut out, the more money you will save each month on your bills. Try some of these easy tips today, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can save in just one month!
Great post, thank you!!!
#1 - I’m terrible at this one…I like being cool in the summer and warm in the winter! I’ve tried!!
Where we did save money was having our home insulated with foam. It turned our $1300 per season propane bill into about $700!! We also bought and installed a high efficiency furnace, so the combo is paying off big time!
#2 - try getting wet, then turning off the water while you lather up and scrub. Turn the water back on just long enough to rinse off. This is an EXCELLENT way of conserving a valuable resource, as well as drastically reducing your water bill. This alone cut ours by $25 a month.
#3 - I have 3 children - who needs a dishwasher?
#4 - When we bought our home we had a clothes line out back, but it was in terrible condition. The previous owner used metal wire for the clothes line, and it was all rusty from the elements. Not their brightest moment, I’m sure….I hope anyway. This saves us a GOB of money. We even use it in the winter…remember, all you need is the sun!
#5 - We switched to LED. Far more expensive per bulb, but after years of paying a premium for CFL bulbs, only to have them last a fraction of the time they had advertised, I’d had enough. I spend about $10 on each bulb now, but my electric bill is much happier, and I haven’t had to change an LED bulb yet!! (and I have one that is used every single day for hours, and it is over a year old!)