4 Ways to Lower Your Electric Bill
As temperatures rise and energy companies announce premium charges for peak hour electricity use, you may be feeling a hit in your wallet. But there are actually a ton of small changes you can make without sacrificing comfort to reduce your energy consumption and lower your bills. Here are the easiest and most effective options.
1. Check for leaks
This means everywhere. Start in your basement and look for any gaps or cracks around the ceiling - if you can see daylight that means air can leak. Moving upstairs, check the seals around your doors and windows, and replace, repair, or cover them as necessary. Any leaking air makes your HVAC system work harder, which uses more energy. You wouldn’t leave a window open with the air conditioning running, so why have tons of tiny windows open throughout the house in the form of gaps?
2. Upgrade your power strips
Anything plugged into an outlet or power strip draws energy, even if it isn’t being used. That means televisions, gaming systems, and even chargers slowly tick your electric bill up each day. There are a few options to combat that. First, you should be using power strips already to protect against surges, but it also makes it easier to simply hit the switch and turn them off when not in use. But if remembering to turn them on and off isn’t really your thing, you can upgrade to smart power strips. Like everything else “smart,” the power strips can be controlled by an app on your smartphone and even scheduled to turn on and off at certain times.
3. Hit the lights
There are three things you can do to your overhead lights that reduce your energy use. The first and simplest is to turn them off when you leave a room. Second, swap out your incandescent bulbs for energy efficient LEDs to use less electricity and change the bulbs less frequently. Finally, talk to an electrician about installing motion sensors that do all of the work for you (this is especially useful in an office with rarely used corridors).
4. Buy smart
Since the point of this is to save money, telling you to upgrade everything in your house would miss the point. But if you have an upcoming appliance purchase? Always look for the EnergyStar symbol to ensure that it’s energy efficient. There are also lots of smaller purchases, like the smart power strips mentioned above, or a smart thermostat that automatically adjusts the temperature in your home, that can make big changes to your energy use and electric bill.
At Grand Bay Electric, we’re here to keep the electricity in your home or business running smoothly, but we’re also here to help you make changes that make it more efficient and keep more money in your wallet. Have a project? Call us to schedule a free estimate.