Sometimes we chalk utility bills up as one of those monthly costs that we don’t have control over. We don’t see the cost with every use. When we’re shopping, we can put something back if the total is too high or we can choose to return items later. Once energy is used, on the other hand, there’s no going back. We’ll be billed for the use.
Do you know how much your utility bills are each month? Do you pay attention? Because utility bills feel like they’re out of our hands, many people pay them blindly without a second thought as to how they can lower those bills.
The truth is, there are many changes you can make to your habits and your home that will save you money. There are even great programs that savvy energy users can take advantage of to decrease their costs even more.
Are you ready to take matters into your own hands and save money on utilities?
Turn it Off!
I am constantly surprised how often I see people leaving all the lights on in their house, or leaving the TV on when they aren’t even in the room, or leaving the water in the kitchen sink running while they rummage through the fridge. If you didn’t grow up in a home with energy conscious parents, then you probably have some long-held habits that are increasing your bills.
The first step to tackling utility bills is being more conscious of our usage. Much of it is a change in mindset and learning to be more aware. Here are a few ideas to keep yourself (and your family) in check and to help build new habits:
- Turn out the lights when you leave the room.
- Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
- Turn off the TV if you aren’t watching it.
- Turn off fans, lights, TV, music, and computers when you leave the house.
- Before going to bed each night, make sure all lights and fans are off.
For an average home in the United States, if half the lights and screens in your house are running when there’s no one in the room to enjoy them, you can cut your electric bill by almost ten percent % just by turning things off!
Other Smart Ideas for Saving Energy
The list of ways to save energy could go on and on. It’s safe to say that there is room for improvement in every household. Here are some ideas to get your wheels spinning. What ways can you reduce your energy usage and save money on utilities?
- Regularly change your HVAC air filters. Spending $2 each month on an inexpensive filter is a much better deal than running your heat or A/C twice as long to get the same result, and wearing your system out early.
- Dry your clothes on a clothesline. Appliances with a heating element are energy suckers. Harness the power of the sun to dry your clothes instead. Here are 9 great reasons to use a clothesline.
- Get a programmable thermostat.
Put your heating and cooling on autopilot so you’re not heating or cooling the house when you’re not there. For as little as about $20, you can save up to 33% off your energy bill (if used as directed). We actually got this smart thermostat free through the OhmConnect program (more on the program below).
- Prevent air leaks. According to energy.gov, if you put all the air leaks in a house together it would be the equivalent of leaving a 2 ft by 2 ft window open all year. Install some foam caulking or weatherstripping around doorways. Insulate around where pipes enter the house. If new windows aren’t in the budget, window insulator kits do an excellent job!
- Open and close your windows and shades. In the winter, take advantage of the warm sun shining through your windows. On cool summer nights, open windows to cool down your house. Get in the habit of using natural heating and cooling methods before turning on the air and heat.
- Dress appropriately. I’ve told you that our secret to keeping heating bills low is to dress for the weather and wait as long as possible to turn on the heat.
When we do turn on the heat we keep the thermostat low. In the summer we do the reverse.
- Prepare your home for vacations. Before going out of town, turn your water heater down. Adjust your thermostat so that your heating and cooling won’t need to work while you’re gone. Unplug appliances since they suck power even when they aren’t on.
- Replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs. I honestly like the warm light of incandescent bulbs best, but incandescent technology uses a lot more energy than LED bulbs. That’s why the packages for LEDs say crazy things like “7 watts, 60 watt equivalent.” LEDs can cost more upfront but use much less energy because they don’t emit heat. They also last many times longer than incandescent bulbs! Just know that some, but not all, LEDs work well in fixtures made for incandescent bulbs, and some have problems with dimmers. The surest way to get good LED light is to purchase an LED-specific fixture. We’ve replaced all of our bulbs and many of our fixtures and fans. It’s really not that expensive.
- Clean out the dryer lint after each load. The lint filter is just like the air return filter in your HVAC system. Your clothes will dry faster and you’ll save on energy use when your lint trap is clean and your dryer can run efficiently.
- Conduct a home energy audit. There are professionals that offer this service using specialized equipment, but you can conduct a DIY home energy audit and definitely find some areas where you can improve.
- Install water-saving fixtures. From shower heads to kitchen faucets, the choices are plentiful in the water-saving category these days. Old toilets, faucets, and shower heads use 20-60% more water than newer water-efficient models.
Incentive Programs
Rate variance by time of day
When we were in law school, our electric company had a money-saving program where we could choose to have our electric bill calculated at a varying hourly rate (expensive in peak hours, low in non-peak hours) instead of a daily flat rate. By changing our energy usage habits, we saved a lot of money on our electric bill. Each night the rates were published for the next day. We would avoid running the air conditioner and doing laundry or other high-energy activities during peak hours when the rates were the highest.
Making changes to our energy habits was definitely worth the savings. We had to opt into the program for a year since they did invest some start-up costs to install a new hourly meter at your house. Each month our bill would show what we would have paid at the regular flat hourly rate versus the variable hourly rate that we got by being in the program. The only regret we had is that we didn’t learn about the program sooner! See if your electric company has a program for keeping your usage down at peak hours or a program where the rates vary by time of the day.
Explore your utility company’s website
Have you checked out your utility company’s website for anything more than just paying your bill? Most companies have resources available for you to monitor your usage. On ours we can see a graph of our usage in kilowatt hours and in dollars. It can be broken down by the day or by the hour.
We like to check in a few times a month. We’re able to see an estimate of what the upcoming bill will be. It’s nice to have some warning before we get a high bill because it gives us time to adjust our usage before it’s too late.
We also check in if we want to see the effect a certain type of usage had on our consumption. Rather than wait for the bill to come at the end of the month, we can see our hourly usage from the day before and learn how much of a difference our attempted adjustments actually make.
If you’re not already using your company’s online resources, go check them out. Pay attention to the amount due on your bills so you can see how your energy-saving efforts are paying off!
Energy-efficient appliance incentives
If your house or major appliances are not energy-efficient, many utility companies and government offices offer incentives to upgrade your appliances or make energy-efficient home improvements. In fact, sometimes the expense of upgrading is covered entirely! The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has a list of the various incentive programs available in each state. You can also check the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. Click on your state and see what programs are available.
OhmConnect Program
OhmConnect is a free program that rewards you for reducing your electricity usage during certain hours called “OhmHours”. It’s available in California, Texas, and a few other places. About once or twice a week, we get a text and email to let us know that the following day there will be an OhmHour at a specific time, usually just one hour, but occasionally two consecutive hours. For each OhmHour you will be given a “forecast” of the amount of energy the power company expects you to use.
You “win” the OhmHour when you use less than your forecast. The amount of your reward will depend on how much less than your forecast your actual usage was. We earn $30-$50/month participating in Ohm hours about 2 ohm hours per week, less in the winter. We’ve also received free smart plugs and a free smart thermostat through the program.
Your own family incentive
If you aren’t in an area where OhmConnect is available, try having your own family challenge! Take a look at your bill and what your family’s average usage is, then set a goal for how much you want to reduce your electricity usage. Set up a reward that gets your family excited. For example, you could tell your kids that if they can help reduce the bill by a certain amount of money, you’ll take half that amount and put it toward a fun family activity (bowling ice cream party, pizza, etc). Each month you can raise the challenge.
Not only will you save electricity and money, but you’ll create good habits and have fun too!
Challenge—Day 9
What can you do to reduce the utility usage at your house? Resolve to make a few changes and see how they impact your bill. Be sure to enlist your family’s help in reducing your usage.
- Do you pay attention to the cost of your utility bills?
- What conscious efforts have you made to save money on utilities?
- Have you taken advantage of any incentive programs?
You made a great point when you talked about how it is a good idea to use some foam caulking around the doorways in your home to prevent air leakage. In addition to that, I would think that it would be a good idea to have an HVAC technician inspect your air conditioning unit and ducts. They will be able to locate any potential areas that might be leaking and then seal them up for you.
Here in Cali we now have time of day, from 4 to 9 is” Power Down time”. Which in reality is, you pay double. I will not run the washer, dryer or dishwasher during that time. I wait until after 9 to turn them on. Unfortunately, I learned how expensive it was with the first months bill. In the summer, we have to run the A/C, as this a desert, and you can’t drink the water from the tap. We have switched to personal Brita filter water bottles for all family members but still have to buy gallons for cooking and lemonade and iced tea. Sorry, but I’m not making coffee from tap water. I just ordered reusable K-cup filters, that will make, hopeful, a good cup of coffee in the reusable K-cup with regular ground coffee.
we have replaced most of the bulbs with LED’s, just a few more to go.
I always struggled with changing HVAC filters every month, because of the expense and waste of buying and throwing away all those filters. I would tend to try to use a filter as long as I could.
I solved that problem by investing in a permanent washable metal HVAC filter. I think that it was around $50 on Amazon. Now I just remove it and clean it and put it back instead of replacing it. I like that I no longer have to buy the disposable filters.
We save money on electricity by not having a clothes dryer. When we bought our house, it occurred to me that not only did we have to pay the increased electric bill every month, we also had to spend the $600 to buy a dryer to begin with. We ordered a washer only and hang all our clothes to dry.
We also keep our central heat turned off most of the time in the winter. We add sweaters, use fleece blankets, take advantage of solar heat (we have a big window that’s facing the way that the sun comes in), and light fires in our wood stove as needed.
I would really like to install solar panels, were there incentives in your state to do so? How long do they last before they (or the roof) needs repair? Can you sell energy back to the grid?
Hi Rachel! We don’t have solar, but Mike’s parents do. There have been incentives but they are always changing. I know my in-laws took advantage of some of them when they got their array. I have no idea about the life span, but I figure that the longer they are around the better they will get. We plan to get solar eventually, but it won’t be until after we pay off the house. you can sell back to the grid, but the buy back rate is much lower than the cost they charge you for energy. The way my in-laws have it, there is an annual “true up” where they account for all you used and all they bought back from you and decide who owes who.
We’ve had our solar panels since 2008. Everything I could say about incentives, selling energy back, etc. would be irrelevant for you and your circumstances, but I can speak to maintenance. We’ve had to get the inverter fixed once (that cost about $100) but that’s the only issue so far. On very hot days (110+ F) the solar panels can switch themselves off, so that’s something to keep an eye on. If they do it’s an easy fix, you just go up on a ladder and flip a switch on the side of the panels. As for annual upkeep, once or twice a year I climb up on the roof to clear out our gutters and at the same time I bring up a bucket of clean water and a window squeegee and rinse the solar panels. You just have to be careful that the squeegee is clean (nothing on it that can scratch the panels.) When it comes to installation do all you can to get them installed facing the right direction and to make sure they aren’t in the shade, because (at least with our panels – the technology might have changed since then) if any part of a panel is in the shade, none of the panel produces electricity.
My secret to saving money on my utilities bill is to unplug everything! Some people don’t know that even if an item is turned off, there is still an electrical current running through the wires. I learned this through my family in Germany, where there is a high value on saving electricity. We unplug all the appliances in our house like the toaster and lamps when they’re not in use. For larger items like the TV, we use a power strip. When you turn off the TV, you also click the off button on the power strip. Easy-peasy and it saves A LOT!
We just moved to Georgia in May and the house that we’re renting sat empty for a few years (repo’ed and then busted water pipes) so we didn’t know what the electric bill would be like. We can watch online to see what our previous days energy usage was so I was doing that and we were having $7-$9 days with the thermostat set to EIGHTY! So our landlord put in a new thermostat which has made all the difference… Now we have $3-$5 days. So even thought the thermostat was programmable (we don’t use that part because me and my son are here all day) a new, updated, inexpensive thermostat helped a lot.
I’m loving reading through all of your posts. I just got done setting my budget. I tried the free-trial of YNAB but I’m in my old habit (ha! I’m only 26) of using Excel so that’s what I’m sticking to. But It was good to get on there and see some ideas of what specific areas I need to be saving for.
That is a huge difference just with a new thermostat! Thanks for sharing your tip!
I don’t do anything special: I just turn out all the lights, check the taps for leaks and unplug every electrical appliance except for the fridge.
Good for you! I am not good about unplugging appliances, but it is supposed to make a difference.
I try to keep a good eye on my utility bills, so I am aware of when we go way over, which is pretty rare. We live in an area that has a huge water shortage, so this is where I pay a lot of attention. I checked out the links in the post, and discovered Texas has a “no sales tax weekend” when you purchase energy star products over Memorial Day. This is good to know!
We are having a drought in CA too. We have a well, so we don’t pay for water directly, just the electricity to run the pump.
That is a fun discovery that about buying energy star appliances on memorial day weekend to not have to pay sales tax!
I can’t stand CFL’s so we will be doing LED when the time comes and we have to. My parents taught us to be energy efficient so we are in very good habit of turning off lights. We didn’t have an air conditioner growing up so we used fans in the window after the sun went down to cool off the house and it had to be very cold for my mom to turn on the heater. We currently do not pay any utilities except drinking water (you cannot drink the tap water where we live) and its a good thing because this house had no heater but the gaps in the doors are big enough for light and flies to get in along with all the sand.
That is great that you were raised with energy-efficient habits like that, otherwise it would be a pretty big change to be living where you are now!
I am really fortunate to have low energy bills. I live in Seattle and the city itself is very green. It has one of the best utility & electrical rates in the country. In fact, we only get billed every other month because of such low rates! I also live in a LEED certified building, which helps. I’ll admit that I do leave the TV on for my dogs when I go to work 🙂
Prior to living here, I lived in FL. I opted to have my utility company pro-rate my bill each month. They averaged my prior year’s bills and I paid the average amount each month. This really helped me save money, especially in the summer months when the A/C was blasting!
That’s awesome that you have low rates in Seattle!
Instead of switching to CFLs – strongly consider paying a bit more for LEDs instead. They use the least wattage, don’t emit heat and can last 15-20 years. We replaced all of our 60 watt incadescent bulbs with 40 watt LEDs which can be purchased at Lowe’s and Walmart for as low as 4.98 each. The LEDs are much brighter so where before I would have used a 60 watt incadescent, I can use a 40 watt equivalent LED that really only uses a few watts of electricity. Unfortunately, the more specialized the bulb, like a candelabra base or flood lights for recessed lighting, the price does go up. If you are willing to front the cost – you will see significant saving in your electricity bill.
CFLs get very hot which is not good in the summer when you are trying to keep cooling costs down. The light isn’t flattering and they only last a couple of years. Additionally, you are technically supposed to dispose of them in a certain way that doesn’t involve jsut tossing them in the trash. THey contain mercury and most people aren’t aware.
LEDs can be tossed in the garbage when they finally run out 10+ years down the road so they aren’t an environmental hazard, don’t emit heat and are available in soft white or daylight (even colors I’ve seen at the hardware store if you want to go crazy lol) If you really want to be frugal, pick the daylight bulbs because they use one watt less but we splurge and go with soft white since it’s more like the flattering incandescent bulbs.
What we did was replace all our standard light bulbs with 40 watt equivalent LEDs and the specialized ones we replace with LEDs as they burn out since they are more expensive.
Thanks Sarah! My husband read through my post the morning after I published it (usually I have him read it the night before, but he was already in bed when I finished) and he added the part about LEDs. He had just bought an LED light and are really pleased with how bright it is! As our other lights die (their bulbs cost $8-10) we will be switching our fixtures to LEDs.
For too long we just paid our bills, whatever they were, because whenever we tried things like shutting off the lights, they never seemed to affect our bill. We finally took things more seriously this year to give it a shot and we’re saving so much money, like over $50/month money. It’s worth it! These are great tips! Focusing on anything that heats or cools and watching time of use were what gave us the biggest returns.
That’s great that you are noticing a difference in your bills! Yes, it’s those things that heat and cool that really suck power and make the bills o up!
That’s a super cool program your electric company had! I’d love something like that (especially with the visual representation of the savings.)
Right now I’m renting a room and utilities are included in the rent so I’m paying relatively little attention. Although I do try to turn off lights and whatnot, just as good environmental practice, I don’t have control over the heat. My current roommate likes it set relatively high so even though I’d be fine with having it five degrees colder like my last roommate did…I’m personally paying the same no matter what, so I just shrug and don’t bundle up as much. But definitely when I’m paying the bill, I turn the thermostat down as low as I can handle! Unplugging appliances when they’re not in use (and unplugging chargers when they’re not in use) has a surprisingly large effect on bills too.
That’s nice that you don’t have to worry about utility bills now. We actually don’t either, though I try to do my part to keep them down for my in-laws.
I am surprised to read that there are people who do not review or monitor their utility bills. I review everything and anything that comes in our house. I just recently read on my light bill that to save energy costs we should do the following:
1. Raise your refrigerator thermostat to the coldest setting;
2. Lower your water heater thermostat and wrap the entire water heater with an insulated water heater cover (which I need to buy); and
3. Shut the vents in the unused bedrooms or rooms.
That being said, I immediately ran home and did exactly that. I will now monitor the February & March statements to see if there is actually a difference.
TGIF!!!
That’s great Wanda! Way to implement those changes right away. Back when we had a house in law school, we always kept the spare bedroom door closed with the vent closed so that we didn’t have to heat or cool that room that we rarely used.
The best thing we ever did was get solar panels! In the 9 months since they were turned on we saved $600! We also switched to an alternative energy supplier and negotiated a flat rate.
My in-laws are really interested in getting solar. The initial investment is pretty big though. I’m glad that it’s saving you money!
I would really like to install solar panels, were there incentives in your state to do so? How long do they last before they (or the roof) needs repair? Can you sell energy back to the grid?