Whether you’re looking to be more sustainable or simply trying to lower your monthly utility bills, you might be wondering how to reduce energy at home. Depending on location, you might have one bill or multiple, but your main public utility bills are typically electricity, natural gas, and water/sewer. There are countless ways to reduce your home utilities, but starting with the low hanging fruit will help make the biggest impact, fastest.
1. Reduce Heating and Air Conditioning Usage
If you have an air conditioning or heating unit, heating and cooling your house can potentially be your largest source of energy consumption, depending on your climate. In milder climates, your home will use less energy annually, but even in more extreme climates, the outdoor weather and air quality might be good enough to shut off your air conditioning system. When the outside temperatures are between 65F and 80F, consider opening windows on opposite sides of your house to create cross flow. Dress appropriately as well, put on a jacket or wear shorts to make yourself more comfortable.
Dressing for your environment can also help you set back your space set points. Throw on a thick pair of socks when it’s cold, and a tank top when it’s warm, to set back your space thermostat to cooler or warmer temperatures.
To keep the hot and cool weather out of your house for longer, think about places where air could leak in or out of your home. Make sure each exterior door has good weather stripping, and make sure all your windows have a good seal. You could use a low cost thermal camera, like this one, which could pay off in just a few months. Simply point the camera at different surfaces in your house, such as an interior wall or window, to get an estimate of the temperature, then try an exterior wall or window to see what the difference is.
2. Reduce Lighting Usage
When you think about how many rooms are in your house, think about how many of them you can physically occupy at any one time. Probably depends on the number of people in your household, right? Inevitably, households probably run into the stereotype where Dad is always reminding you to turn out the lights. Now that we’re adults and paying our own bills, probably makes sense, right?
Now days, LED light bulbs offer a similar light quality to our old favorite incandescent bulbs. This pack of four on Amazon has great reviews, and is only about $8. Given that the life of these bulbs is much longer than incandescent, and uses only a fraction of the energy, it’ll be easy to see how fast they pay back.
3. Set Back Your Water Heater
If you’re like me, you might turn your hot tap on your shower or sink on to full blast to get your hot water out fast, then dial it back a little and mix with some cold water to avoid scalding your face or body when washing. While it might be nice in the kitchen to have super hot water, you likely use more water in washing and bathing. Check the setting on your water heater and turn the dial back to about 120F, but preferably no lower. If your water heater doesn’t have a temperature gauge on it, or not one that you can equate to an accurate temperature, try picking up a candy thermometer. Run the tap for a bit, dip in the thermometer, and if it’s over 120F, then dial the temperature setpoint back!
4. Kill Vampire Loads
Do we need to break out our wooden stakes or strings of garlic? Not quite. Vampire loads come from things that are plugged in all the time, but aren’t being used. Examples include your microwave clock, the computer you forgot to turn off, or your home printer. Anything that stays plugged into an outlet uses power, and if you aren’t careful, can suck power and run up your electricity bill without you knowing.
You might not want to hire an electrician to swap out all your outlets and put in occupancy sensors to automatically shut off those outlets, which is a trend in the commercial world. However, a simple trick might include plugging your computer group into a power outlet with an off switch. Make sure your printer, desk lamp, monitor, speakers, and any other computer accessories are plugged in. At the end of the day, power down your computer and switch off the power strip.
Without splurging for smart outlets that you can turn off with your virtual home assistant, get in the habit of unplugging accessories when not in use. The results may not be huge or immediately noticeable, but at this point, every little bit helps!
5. Efficient Appliances
If you’ve had your appliances for a while, you might have to replace one every so often. While it’s usually more frugal and sustainable to use what has already been purchased for as long as possible, when it’s time to upgrade, consider options that are Energy Star certified. For example, when you need a new computer monitor, microwave, washers, dryers, and refrigerators.
While these types of purchases are typically spread out over time, if you have something on it’s last leg, consider making sure that your new purchase will give you the same or better performance for a lot less energy!
Ultimately, getting in good habits is always the key to lowering your energy usage and therefore your utility bills. Take the opportunity to be mindful of your behaviors. Dress appropriate for the season, remember to turn off those lights and unnecessary accessories, and look out for good options for your next appliance purchase!