This post is about how to reduce electricity consumption and lower your electrical bills. This web site is all about how to reduce our costs around the home and one of the largest utility bills is the electrical bill. Consumers living in the southern US use a lot of electricity to cool their homes while consumers in the north will use more to heat their homes , especially if you have electrical heating. Any time you run a motor, turn on a light or use an appliance at home you are consuming electricity. As we move to the so called smart cars and rechargeable cars, it will only get more important to reduce our electrical usage to avoid those huge bills.
I have already reduced our annual bill by over $400 simply by turning off lights, converting to florescent bulbs and only running the AC and the pool pump during hours when the cost of electricity is reduced. In our area, the cheapest electricity is at night after 7 pm until 7 am, so if I have to use electricity for things like the clothes dryer, the AC and the pool, I try to run them at night and avoid the more expensive hours.
How much More Expensive is Electricity
At night we pay 7 cents per kilowatt hour, while during the day at peak times it can be as high as 11.5 cents per kilowatt hour. This is a 65% increase and represents a huge savings opportunity! for example if you regularly run the lights all night, a single 60 watt incandescent light bulb is going to cost you about $20 for the entire year. Converting to a florescent light bulb that gives off the same amount of light but only takes 8 watts to run is only going to cost a $1.60 a year or $10.40 in savings, which more than pays for the cost of the more expensive bulb.
This is just one bulb in your home. Imagine if you converted all of the bulbs to florescent bulbs ! How much money would you save? Electrical light bulbs are the least expensive to operate. Appliances with motors such as dryers and furnaces or air conditioning units consume far more electricity.
How to reduce electricity consumption: Just Turn it off
This should really be the motto for home owners who are serious about reducing electricity consumption. If you cannot turn it off, at least reduce the usage so that you are reducing your electrical usage. Another example is drying your clothes. If you own a dryer and wash your own clothes, you obviously have to dry them, however by drying them on the weekend or in the evening, you can consume far less electricity. If you are not adverse to hanging your clothes on a clothes line outside, you can also save a great deal of money this way and your clothes will smell really fresh too. For many people this is not really an option so they just have to shift their clothes drying to the non peak hours.
If you are not in the room, turn off your TV. No one is watching it and you are just consuming electricity! There is another benefit as well. TV’s these days have a limited life span. The more you use them the quicker the screen will burn out and have to be replaced. Turn it off when it is not being used to save money in several ways.
Reduce electricity Consumption While on Vacation
Do you need to run the AC while you are on vacation this summer? If not turn it off! Or if you have pets at home at least turn the temperature up a bit to reduce your usage. Set your lights to turn on and off using timers so they are not on all of the time, but still give that lived in look to your home. If you leave in the winter time, you must leave your furnace running, however you can turn down the temperature a few degrees to save electricity and also heating fuel as well.
A final reminder about how to reduce electricity consumption. If you cannot turn it off , then reduce consumption by using it less. You can also consider shifting your usage into time frames were electrical rates are lower. If you do not know what the prices are call your local electrical utility. Find out what the rates are throughout the day.
October 25th, 2012 on 1:03 am
This is one of my favorite topics, reducing energy consumption. Thanks for these tips on how to reduce electricity usage
August 22nd, 2012 on 8:11 am
until i read this blog, i had no idea you could save money by turning your electrical appliances etc off. i have just started this and look forward to saving some money on my monthly bills. thanks for this blog