Every homeowner wants to pay less for energy bills, and here I will discuss 5 best tips that everyone can implement to save on energy bills.
1. Heater / Air Conditioner
Heater and Air Conditioner is the most energy hungry appliance in the house, and depending on the weather, setting your thermostat to the right temperature will save on electricity or gas.
We keep the thermostat at 72F, it is just right during the day in the summer, and we lower it to 71F for the night to make it slightly cooler. And in the winter we try to keep it a little higher at 73F to 74F as the warm air escapes easier through the cracks in the windows.
Another very important thing to consider is to alway have all vents fully open, it is crucial that your inside unit has the ability to circulate air freely, if you close some vents you are decreasing the amount of air that is being circulated thus making it harder for the fan to work, and in the summer, if too many vents are closed there is a risk of damaging inside unit, so as my heading and cooling guy told me to “always have all your vents open”.
Each thermostat is different and your thermostat temperature readings may slightly vary, so just play with it and see what works best for you, but the takeaway is to always keep the thermostat in the same temperature.
2. Water Heater
Water heater is the second largest appliance in the house that is using a lot of energy especially during hot or cold seasons, and by adjusting the temperature may help you with your energy bills.
Typically in summer it we do not use as much hot water, so we keep it at 120F, but when the winter comes, and especially if your water heater is in the garage like ours, you may want to turn it up a bit to make that water warmer, we usually keep it around 130F.
This way you will be using less of the hot water as it will be hotter and you will need to add more of cold water to dilute it, consequently using less of hot water.
Caution: Please use caution when increasing temperature in your water heater as there is a risk of burning yourself if you increate the temperature too high, if you are not sure how to do it safely, please ask the expert.
3. Replace All Lighting with LED Light Bulbs
I know what you think 🤔 , it will cost a lot of money to replace whole house with LED, but it is totally worth it.
When we bought our first house, we did not pay attention to the light bulbs and our electric bill just seemed to be a little too hight, and we were not sure why that is.
Then my father told me to check all the light bulbs I have around the house, especially the ones that are outside as they run all night after the sun goes down, and sure enough, all of them were old style bulbs that are using 60 Watt and 100 Watt, that is a lot of electricity to waste.
We did invest a little but and replaced all light bulbs at once, and our next month electric bill was so much less than the previous. It is really worth it.
Below are some of the light bulbs that we are using which consume anywhere from 6 to 9 watt of energy but produce light of a 60 watt bulb.
Caution: Please use caution when working with electricity and changing bulbs, if you do not feel comfortable it is always better to consult with the expert!
Below are some of the light bulbs to look into to save on electricity.
4. Run Your Appliances at Night
It is true that the electricity is at a slightly lower cost at night due to less demand, so it is beneficial to run fully loaded dishwasher, a washing machine or a dryer at night.
Also, we learned that if you wash off the dishes just with water and a sponge, before putting it in the machine, and then run the dishwasher on light and heat dry setting, it will wash them quicker, lowering both, water and electric bill usage thus lowering the bills 😉.
5. Timer and Motion Detector for Exterior Lighting
It really depends on how people like it, but I installed the timer for the exterior lights and have them on until 12AM and then after that they turn on when there is a motion.
Something to consider is where it is windy and/or raining, the lights will come on from rain falling or trees moving, so setting motion detection on low will help diminish amount of time they turn on during the night.
Below is another great hight rated option for the solar lighting that you can add above the garage door.
