How to Lower Your Electric Bill NOW!

Who doesn't want to lower their electric bill? Especially if you live in a location where the electric costs a small fortune like here on Long Island.  But fret not!  In the past four years, with a lot of work and implementing everything you will read here, we were able to lower our yearly KWH usage from 13,634 KWh's in 2013 to 9,670 KWh's in 2013.  That is a savings of 3,964 KWh's per year! Wow! The goal was to get below 10,000 KWh's and we exceeded that.  What did we do and how can you do it too?

First, we used an energy meter to determine how much energy different appliances were using. For example, we used it on our refrigerator and after seeing how much electric it used and comparing that to the new energy star ones, well replacing it was a no brainer.  This saved us the most KWh's. Read about our new Energy Star Refrigerator here.

Second, we decreased how many hours our pool filter runs in the summer. This was a huge savings as well. Read about our Pool Energy Savings here.

The third huge change was switching to all LED bulbs. This was a bit of an expense to start with, but worth every penny! And since we bought in bulk, it wasn't as costly as it could have been.  Read why you should switch to LED bulbs here.

Read more below about how we decreased our KWh's and lowered our electric bill.

Decreasing Electric Use - Investment required!
The following cost us money, but our electrical use decreased a lot so they were worth it!

• LED lightbulbs - We switched our entire house to 40 Watt equivalents, called A19's.  They only use 6 Watts each!  We saved a lot of money on our bill with this.   Note - We have some bright white and some warm white  depending upon the room in the house.  I prefer the warm color though. I was able to find the A19 - 40 Watt equivalents that use only 6 Watts each for $3.75 per bulb with free shipping on Amazon if I bought the 12 piece value pack here: VALUE LED BULBS or a 4 piece pack here: LED BULBS.  Its a price I have not been able to beat anywhere else yet!  UPDATE:  The 12 piece value pack which I had purchased on Amazon is no longer available.  The 4 piece pack shown at right is though.  Note that comparable CFL's use about 13 Watts per bulb and of course a regular bulb uses 40 Watts.

• Power Strips -  We plug multiple items into a strip and keep the strip accessible so it can be switched on or off as needed.  Example: all the video games in the basement are plugged into one strip.  When we play them, we switch in on, when we are done, we switch it off.  This way all the games are not constantly drawing power when they are not being used. Using power strips also protects your appliances from being ruined if there is a power surge. Harbor Freight sells 4 outlet strips for 3.99 (on sale) and 6 outlet strips for 5.99 (on sale) - bonus: they always have 20% off coupons and coupons for something free with purchase! ​

• Electric Timers - These are great for plugging in Christmas lights or lamps.  Essentially, you set the timer for when they turn on and off.  Every day the timer does it for you.  There's no forgetting to shut something off.  It works for the chicken coop light in the winter as well.  Note that if you have an appliance with a 'soft' electronic button for on/off, the timer will not work. When it shuts it off, it will not turn back on at the set time (just like when the power goes out).  So think about what you want to use it for before you buy it.  We use the INTERMATIC timers.

• Buying Energy Star Products - when it's worth it.  Energy star products are products that have been independently certified to use less energy, save money, and help protect the environment.  They make it easier for us to identify and potentially purchase an energy saving product that meets certain standards.  However, I think it is really only worth it financially on products that use a lot of energy like the refrigerator, stove/oven, dishwasher, air conditioner, air purifier, etc.  Example:  we just purchased an LED television for the basement.  Its energy guide label (edited for use below) showed a yearly estimated energy use of 76 kWh/yr (Note: we ignore the operating cost because electric bills are different everywhere).  This is based on a typical baseline usage of 5 hours per day. Anyway, this purchase was for our basement and typical use for us would be maybe an hour per day at most.  After doing the math, that meant our estimated use would be about 16 kwh/yr. It was more beneficial for us to save money on the purchase of the television rather than buy an energy star one!  Note: if the television was energy star it would have the picture in the bottom corner.  We have however, gone out of our way to purchase the following energy efficient appliances:
  • ​Refrigerator
    
  • Dishwasher (low water use too!)
  • Large living room window air conditioner
  • Master bedroom window air conditioner

Decreasing Electric Use - Little to No Money required:
These are mostly common sense, but reminders are needed every day in our house :-)

• Turn lights off when you leave a room (serious no brainer).
• Keep less bulbs 'burning' in a room.  For example, if you have a light fixture that holds two or more bulbs, unscrew one or more of them (don't leave them empty it is a fire hazard).  Fixtures with multiple bulbs are common in hallways, bathrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, etc.  We did this for all the lights where you can't actually see the bulbs.
• Unplug anything that runs on electric when it's not in use.  This is not as easy to do since some outlets can be hard to get to, but for things like cellphones and computer chargers that may be plugged in on counters, this is  a good idea because they are constantly drawing what is called 'Phantom Power.'  One charger won't matter, but multiply this by all of the other items that draw as well, and it does contribute.
• Hang your clothes to dry!  Especially sheets and towels in the summer.....This can cost nothing and save a lot!  Or you can purchase an inexpensive retractable clothes line and still save!
• Lower the temperature on the pool heater in the summer (we like it about 85 degrees).  
• Decrease the amount of time the pool filter runs per day.  Most people run the filter far too long - the goal is to run all of the water in the pool through the filter once a day.  See our Blog post: Reduce Your Pools Energy Use.
• Close the pool two weeks earlier than normal.  Nobody used it anyway because it was cold.  Our heater only heats the pool if it's hot out.

We are always working to save money on our electric bill and continue to replace high energy use appliances with energy star ones.  The washer and dryer will be soon! Cant wait to see how much we will save :-)

Thank you for visiting!
Check out other ways to Save Money on your Bills & Debt!
Follow us on social media :-)
Sincerely,