We’ve all been there in recent months. You’ve nervously looked at the news and seen the endless supply of stories about how energy bills are going up and up and up around the world.
It’s a worrying thing to read about, and it’s left many people wondering how they afford to pay their expensive electric bill.
We’re guessing that if you’ve found your way to this article, then you’re one of those people. Well, don’t fret, we’ve got six top tips to help save money on your electric bill.
1. Insulate Your House
Probably the best thing that you can do to cut costs on the electric bill is to ensure that your house is properly insulated. Insulating your house reduces the burden on your heating system and allows your house to retain the heat within it.
You don’t have to go to extreme lengths to add an extra layer of insulation to your home. You can buy draught excluders from most good homeware shops. These nifty strips go at the bottom of doors and stop cold breezes from creeping into the house through the gaps in the doors.
Another thing you should try to keep insulated is your pipes. A house can lose a significant amount of its heat through improperly insulated pipes and water tanks. If you keep these well insulated, the water will stay warmer for longer and you’ll further reduce the bills required to heat up water over and over again.
2. Turn Off Standby Mode
We get it, it’s super convenient to put the TV (and other) appliances on standby mode, just one press of a button, and the appliance quickly boots up. However, you’d be surprised how much of your electricity bill goes towards powering devices you’re not even using.
If you’re not convinced that standby mode uses a large amount of energy, then you may be interested to know that devices on standby can use as much as 75% of the energy that they use when they’re fully switched on.
Take a bit more time to turn your devices on and off properly, it’ll save you money in the long run.
3. Take More Showers
This might seem like a counterintuitive piece of advice, but hear us out. Rather than taking a smaller number of really long showers, you’re better off showering multiple times in small bursts.
Reducing the time you spend in the shower can significantly lower the costs of your electric bill. Also, if you’re used to taking baths, consider switching to taking showers from now on.
Baths use a vast amount more water than the average shower, so if you need to keep that bill down, then skip the bath. That’s not to say you can never have a bath, but you should keep it for an occasional treat rather than a daily routine.
4. Keep the Fridge Full
The more stuff that you can pack into your fridge and your freezer, the less energy it’ll be using to keep everything cool. The science behind this is actually fairly straightforward.
When the fridge and the freezer are empty, the appliance is working super hard to keep all of that open air inside the door cold. When you fill the fridge/freezer up, there is less of that air for the appliance to have to cool down.
Bonus tip: take the time to defrost your freezer every now and again. Ice can rapidly build up in your freezer, and it could be making your energy bills more expensive.
According to research published on Science Direct, the more ice that is built up in a freezer, the more energy it will be using to run.
5. Wash Clothes Effectively
Some energy-saving tips are just about cutting out the use of appliances that aren’t so useful to you. That’s not the case with laundry though.
Just because you have to do the laundry, doesn’t mean you can cut costs while you’re doing it. Be sure to wash your clothes at a lower temperature so that the machine uses less hot water.
You should also make sure to only put full loads into the machine. Don’t waste the water and energy by only washing one or two things, wait until you have a full load to wash.
If you have a dryer, you should avoid using it altogether. They can be incredibly draining on your energy bill. Try switching to a clothesline or a drying rack.
6. Go Solar
If you’re looking for a green energy source as a solution to your problem, then you can’t go wrong with solar power. Yes, the initial costs might be on the steeper side, but once you have solar panels installed, you’ll be harnessing your energy directly from a source that can’t be depleted; the sun’s rays.
Making your house self-sufficient on solar power could completely write off the costs that you’re paying to a utility company every month. What’s more, solar panels usually generate more power than a house needs.
If this happens, you can buy specially made storage cells to keep this spare electricity for a day when your panels may not be working to full capacity.
What’s even better is that you can make money from your solar panels. If you don’t want to keep the spare energy that your panels create you can sell it to the utility company, where it will go to the local grid.
That’s the dream isn’t it, the energy company paying you. Follow the link if you’re intrigued about the cost of solar installation.
Follow These Tips to Save Money on Your Electric Bill
It’s a worrying time to have bills to pay, but now you’re equipped with six excellent tips for how to save money on your electric bill. As you can see, there is plenty you can do to keep your costs down and get on top of your bills before they become too expensive.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some more of our great informational home content today. You won’t regret it.
