Do you find yourself paying more for your power bill than usual? If so, that’s no surprise. Even if you’re using the same amount of electricity, power rates tend to go up over time.
The good news is that you don’t have to accept these changes. There are steps you can take to reduce your power usage and reduce your energy bill.
Do you want to learn how to reduce your energy costs? Follow the steps below to reduce energy usage at home and cut your electricity bill.
Look for Energy Leaks
In normal situations, your home does a great job of containing your home’s climate. The doors and windows are sealed, and insulation lines the walls. Unfortunately, these things can break down as time goes on.
An energy leak occurs when this happens. Take a door and window, for instance. Your home can develop cracks around the framing that exposes your home to the elements.
These cracks make it harder to maintain your home’s climate, which increases your energy usage.
Insulation is another essential part of this. Your insulation resides in your walls and ceiling and helps prevent air from entering and leaving your home. But depending on your insulation type, it can break down over time.
Inspect as much of this as possible and plug energy leaks to make it easier for your HVAC unit to maintain your home’s climate. When you do this, you’ll reduce your electricity costs.
Use Energy-Efficient Bulb
A single light bulb doesn’t use much energy. This causes many people to believe that their bulbs won’t matter much when saving energy at home. But those people fail to consider how much energy they use when they have a lot of light bulbs on at once.
These costs will add up over time when you have a lot of lighting. The big problem is that traditional bulbs aren’t energy efficient. This leads to much more energy usage than you would think.
But there are energy-efficient options to consider. Many people are now switching to energy-efficient light bulbs. Although they cost more upfront, they use much less energy and last longer.
You also have smart lighting available if you want to make unique lighting zones that will make your home more unique.
Use Energy Star Appliances
Many people still use old appliances in their homes. They were built to last a long time, so there has been no need to upgrade them. The problem is that these things weren’t energy efficient.
That’s no longer the case today. Appliances can go through the Energy Star certification to assure consumers they are energy efficient.
You don’t need to go through and upgrade everything you own today, but this is something to keep in mind when you do need to make updates. As your appliances age and fail, replace them with Energy Star appliances. This will help you make sure your appliances aren’t using more power than necessary.
Use a Smart Thermostat
A significant source of wasted electricity is using an HVAC system when you aren’t home. It’s fine to keep your home comfortable when you’re there, but there’s no reason to do this if nobody can enjoy it.
Solving this problem is easy if you leave each day on a schedule. You can get a smart thermostat and program it to change your home’s climate on a schedule.
Doing this will make your home less comfortable at certain times of the day and return everything to normal when people get home. This means you’ll waste less power on heating and cooling your home when nobody is there.
Upgrade Your Water Heater
A major source of power usage for homes is the water heater. If you have a traditional heater, it needs to keep the water hot at all times. A large water heater tank means this uses a lot of power daily.
Many homes don’t need this flexibility. They only need hot water heated on-demand and don’t need a tank full of water. Luckily, you have this option with a tankless water heater.
Tankless water heaters only heat water when you need it — meaning you don’t need to keep a water tank heated at all times. This can drastically decrease your power usage long term.
If you don’t have the budget for a new water heater, you have another option. There are water heater timers available that will make it so your current water heater only runs at specific times.
Invest in Solar
If you have a larger budget, solar energy is an excellent investment for your home. It allows you to generate power for yourself instead of buying it from the power company.
This is an expensive purchase, so ensure you get the facts about solar before investing. You want your current location to be a good producer of solar and be able to get an installation that meets your needs.
Contact a solar installer in your area if you want to learn more. An expert can walk you through your options and help you understand if solar is right for you.
Do Your Part to Reduce Energy Costs
It’s no secret that costs across the board are going up. And even worse — the environment is still taking a beating and giving us more extreme weather each year. That’s why it’s no surprise you want to do your part to reduce the carbon footprint of your home and save money at the same time.
The good news is that it’s not hard to reduce energy costs. When you follow the advice above, you can make small and large changes to make a dent in your energy bill.
Of course, reducing your energy usage isn’t the only way to save money. Check out more posts on the blog to learn more tips that will help you save money.
