Who loves the idea of paying less for electricity every month? Today is your lucky day.
This is a can’t-miss, curated list of ways to lower your monthly electric bill. Some are easy to implement, while others will take some time. Above all else, every trick is simple to incorporate. Your journey to a more manageable electric bill starts today.
1. Use Blinds to Your Advantage
Blinds block unwanted light from entering your home. Still, only some are aware that using them can massively decrease your electric bills.
Keeping your blinds closed during the day obviously blocks out sunlight but also keeps your house cooler. After all, the sun is a big heat source, and blocking it from entering your home can yield impressive electric bill savings. Try it.
2. Unplug Anything You Can
Most appliances and devices draw a minuscule amount of power when plugged into a live electrical socket, even if they’re fully charged or on standby mode. These devices always draw a miniscule amount of energy, which adds up significantly over time.
Do yourself a favor and unplug everything you can. Toasters, lamps, and smartphone chargers are perfect candidates for lessening your electrical load.
3. Air Dry Your Clothes
Modern humans are spoiled when it comes to doing laundry, and it undoubtedly affects our electric bill at the end of the month. To cut costs, start by forgetting your electric dryer exists. That’s right: embrace the air-drying lifestyle from this point forward.
Although it takes longer for your clothes to dry after pulling them out of the wash, and you’ll encounter more wrinkles than usual, running a dryer uses a lot of energy that adds up at the end of each month.
4. Avoid Hot Water Rinses
In 2024, many newer homes and apartments are equipped with electric water heaters, meaning every time you use hot water, you pay for it via your electric bill.
Although I won’t suggest eliminating hot showers from your daily routine, I recommend not using hot or warm water when washing your clothes. From now on, you’re strictly a “cold tap” household.
5. Toss the Microwave
Yes, you read that correctly. Throw out your microwave. You don’t need it. An oven (or air fryer) can do the job just as well for a fraction of the energy costs.
A microwave is arguably the most inefficient household appliance. To make matters worse, it encourages the preparation of unhealthy microwaveable meals that we’d all be better off not eating. Toss your microwave in the trash to save money and live healthier.
6. Invest in a Smart Thermostat
Smart thermostats from companies like Nest serve a valuable purpose. These devices use machine learning to optimize your heating and cooling patterns, eventually lowering energy bills.
Thankfully, these devices are relatively inexpensive (less than $100) and are easy to install. Embrace this technology, and pay less for your monthly electricity costs.
7. Upgrade Appliances
Modern kitchen appliances, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens, are exceedingly energy-efficient. While inefficient, poorly designed appliances were the norm in the past, that’s not the case anymore.
One of the most obvious solutions to increasing energy costs is to upgrade your appliances to newer, more efficient models.
8. Use Modern Charging Devices
Millions of men and women charge their smartphones, laptops, and other devices using the ubiquitous chargers in every household in the United States. Unfortunately, these people aren’t charging as efficiently as they could be.
Modern, “smart” chargers by companies like Anker and Samsung automatically sense when your device is full and will stop pushing wasted energy into your device. Invest in these chargers instead.
9. Turn Off Your Lights
If you’re anything like me, you constantly forget to turn off lights when you leave a room. My fiancee hates it, and I hate myself for it. At this point in my life, it feels like a habit I’ll never break. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Turn off lights and save money. It’s that easy. Get into the habit, and your wallet will thank you.
10. Go Easy on the Air Conditioning
Surprise, surprise: running the air conditioner nonstop wrecks havoc on the electrical grid and your wallet. Whether you have central air installed in your home or use the tried-and-true “window” units, these cooling systems are expensive.
The solution is shockingly simple: use less air conditioning. Your body will take some time to acclimate, and you may be a little sweatier in the summer, but remember, this is all about decreasing your electric bill.
11. Upgrade Your Light Bulbs
There are two kinds of light bulbs: old-school incandescent bulbs and high-tech LED-equipped bulbs. Use the latter for maximum energy bill savings.
Luckily, upgrading your bulbs to LED versions is one of the most affordable and energy-efficient upgrades you can make to your home since they sell for about the same price as incandescent bulbs.
12. Use a Smart Power Strip
Surge protectors and power strips have been around for decades. Still, smart power strips are a reasonably new innovation that ensures anything plugged in doesn’t use more power than it needs. One of the easiest ways to level up your energy savings is to outfit major outlets in your home with these strips.
Before you know it, you’ll save money at a rate you’d never imagine.
13. Invest in a Lamp Timer
Lamp timers have been around for decades, but not many households use them in 2024. If you’re a forgetful person (like me), lamp timers are an inexpensive way to cover your tracks and ensure all lamps turn off at certain times of the day.
It’s a lifesaver for saving money and energy, and it’s among the cheapest bill-reducing hacks I know.
14. Turn Your Computers Off When Not in Use
I distinctly remember my father explaining how a computer uses so much energy powering it off and on that, it’s not worth turning it off at the end of the day. Of course, this resulted in us leaving our old computer running 24 hours a day.
This information is not applicable in 2024. When not using your computer, feel free to turn it off and reap the financial benefits.
15. Watch Less TV
It doesn’t get more straightforward than this: watch less television and see your monthly electric bill magically decrease. Do whatever it takes to watch less TV. I’d even unplug the television during certain hours of the day to encourage less viewing.
Cutting television out of your life may seem rash. Still, if you want to save money, you can’t be afraid to make significant changes.
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