Save Money on Your Electric Bill: 15 Ways To Do It

Want to save money and don’t know where to start? It’s simple, start with your utility bills. Specifically, in this article, you will find 15 ways to save money on your electric bill.

Many people are looking to save money these days, but most of the time they often skip or don’t even think about their utility bills. With so many electronics and appliances in our life, it’s only natural to start with your electricity bill first.

According to the U.S. Energy Department, the average American family spends $1,400 or more in utility bills every year.
The electric bill is usually the biggest of them all, and so it makes sense for many people who are looking to save money to try and lower their electricity bills as much as possible.

15 Methods to Lower Your Electric Bill:

1. Change electricity suppliers

You could save money on your electric bills just by switching your provider. Usually, you will end up paying a few hundred dollars less per year.

But…

Before you take the plunge, you should do a lot of research first and check out all the energy suppliers that are operating in your state, and compare the prices.

There are many tools and websites online that will calculate the costs between the electricity providers, but most of the time they don’t show you the full list of available suppliers from your state.

So make sure to check out the full list of providers depending on your state, and then compare the prices to see if it’s worth the switch.

When doing the research, you should focus on these 3 key things:

• The price you pay per kWh
• Additional fees, taxes, and monthly charges,
• Your old kWh price (make sure to create an average based on the amount you have paid in the last 12 months)

Also switching energy suppliers won’t affect the quality of the service, because most of the time the poles and wires will be owned by the public utility company.

2. Lower the heat

You probably know this by now, but turning down the thermostat by a few degrees in the winter can save you money.

How much money can you save? Well, it depends on your usage and your needs, also on how many rooms you have, etc.

But the Department of Energy made this even easier for us and said that you save one percent of your electric bill with every degree you lower on the thermostat.

So there you go: 1 lower degree on the thermostat equals 1 percentage off the electricity bill.

3. Install smart thermostats

Speaking of thermostats, you should install a smart thermostat into your home, to automate the whole process.

You simply program the thermostat to either lower or raise the temperature based on the time of the day, and then the thermostat will do it automatically for you so that you don’t forget.

Remember that people usually sleep much better in a cooler room, so maybe you can take a few degrees off the thermostat during the night to save money on your electric bill.

Some popular programmable thermostats to check out are Honeywell, Google Nest, Emerson Sensi, and Ecobee.

4. Replace your light bulbs

Still, using regular old incandescent bulbs? Time to replace them with LED or CFL bulbs if you want to save money on your electric bill.

Not only do they last 25 times longer (yes you even get to save money from not buying bulbs so often), but they also use 75% less energy than regular bulbs.

That’s coming straight from the US Department of Energy, which also mentions that if more households start using LED bulbs, by 2027, the U.S will save $30 billion or more (at today’s energy prices).

5. Install Smart Light Switches

Not only are they good at preventing thieves at night, but motion detection sensors could also help save money on your electricity bill.

But you could use smart switches for the lights inside the house, and you get to control the lighting in every room via WiFi or Bluetooth, and you can adjust many things like brightness, ability to turn the lights on and off, ambient scenes, and color combinations, etc.

6. Choose energy-efficient appliances

If you want to save money on your electric bill significantly you should buy energy-efficient household appliances. When you go shopping, look out for appliances with the Energy Star logo and ratings on them to get an idea of how efficient they are and if it’s going to help you save money in the long run.

You could save from $50 to $100 or more in electric bills per year, but the amount can vary on things like use frequency and what type of appliances you have.

7. Insulate your home

Here’s the thing, good home insulation will help you save a lot of money both in the winter and the summer months.

If your house doesn’t have good insulation, you will lose a lot of money trying to make up for it by running the heating a few degrees higher in the winter and the AC almost non-stop during the summer.

You should look into insulating your attic first and then the walls and the pipes to keep them from freezing and putting more stress on your heating system.

8. Use Less Hot Water

Yes, it might not seem that big of a deal but using less hot water can help you save money on your electric bill by a few dollars every month.

The water heater is used almost all the time to send hot water to your sinks, showers but also to your laundry and dishwashing machines.

Turning down the degrees just a little bit on the water heater is a first start, the other being to use less hot water, especially when washing clothes.

You can opt to wash your clothes in cold water, and you won’t see any significant differences in the result of the wash, but you will get to save extra money on electricity bills in doing so.

Don’t forget to also turn the water heater off if you plan on going away from home for a few days.

9. Use a Clothesline

According to Energy Star, clothes dryers use the most energy out of all your appliances and increase your monthly electricity bills substantially.

Instead of using a clothes dryer, you should try and dry your clothes the old fashioned way: with a clothesline. Especially if the weather allows it.

Why not use the power of the sun and dry your clothes for free instead of using an expensive dryer?

You could lower your electricity bill by $85 or more every year, by simply not using your clothes dryer that much.

10. Unplug your electronics

All those electronics that you have plugged in everywhere in your house, will silently suck away electricity all the time, even when not in use, costing you at least an extra $100 bill each year.

So the simple solution to stop these energy vampires from wasting your money when not in use is to plug them into power strips and then turn the plug off or unplug each of them manually when you’re done with them.

Not only will you save money on your energy bill, but you will also keep your electronics safe in case a power surge happens.

11. Replace your air filter

You should replace your air filters regularly not only because it’s not good to inhale all that dust and lint, but it’s also costing you more money by keeping them dirty.

The air filter has just one purpose, to prevent nasty things from going into your ventilation system. Keeping your HVAC clean of dust, and other debris will ensure proper working, which is important if you want your unit to be energy-efficient.

If the HVAC is working optimally then it will use less energy and the work it has to do in order to maintain the temperature, and this means you will get a lower electricity bill.

12. Use your dishwasher

Yes, contrary to popular belief, even though dishwashers use energy, they are still more efficient and cheaper to use than if you were to wash the dishes manually.

In fact, if you’re using an Energy Star rated dishwasher, you could save thousands of gallons of water and $40 in utility bills each year.

Oh and bonus points: You don’t have to do the dishes, and you save 230 hours of the time you were wasting on doing them.

13. Use a fan

If you live in an area with hot summers then you should consider opting for a ceiling fan or regular desk fans to do the job of cooling your house instead of an AC.

The ceiling fan can still lower the temperature of your room (by about 10 degrees) and they use 10% less energy than an HVAC or regular air conditioner.

Plus, ceiling fans just look cooler (yes pun intended), you can create a nice, comforting, and welcoming room just by picking the right fan.

14. Install dimmers

Another nice trick to save money on your electricity bill is to use dimmer switches for your lights. By using a dimmer, you can control and reduce the wattage and the output of your bulbs.

This means that you will get to save more on energy, and on bulbs. But be advised that not all bulbs work with dimmer switches, so be sure to get the right ones.

In addition to saving you money, dimmer switches also allow you to create a calm vibe by lowering the lights, this will help with your reading or when it’s time to chill for a bit.

15. Check out for air leaks

Check out windows and doors for air leaks, and see if they are properly sealed. If they are not, you can either do it yourself or hire a professional to seal them for you.

One thing is for sure, if cold air gets in through the cracks while trying to heat your home during winter, your heating system will work more and this means that you will spend more money on your electricity bill.

You could also replace your windows with double or even triple glazing windows will also help maintain a more stable temperature in your home.

How to lower your electric bill: Conclusion

So there you have it, 15 methods to save on your electricity bill. And if you think that saving an extra $100 a year is not worth doing any of these tips, then you should read: How to Start Investing With $100 and see how much you can do with just a hundred dollar bill.