When we lived in Florida, the soft drone of the central air conditioning not only lulled us to sleep every night, but provided white noise during work as well. In the hot and humid summer months, the A/C was constantly running. So was the balance on our electric bill. While we complained about utility bills that hit three figures, friends and family across Florida and other states like Texas reported bills closer to $400 – $800 a month. And that’s just for electric, not taking into account gas, water, and other utilities. Below, we offer tips to help you save money on your electric and other utility bills, whether you’re sweating receiving the bill in August or shaking in fear of the total in February.
Conduct an energy audit
Check with your local utility provider to see if they offer a complimentary energy audit. We got this done in Florida. As part of the audit, they did a pressure test to see how “leaky” our house was. They also noticed pain points where money was leaking out of our wallets, such as our attic insulation. They even provided a credit/rebate toward upgrading the insulation, which we were planning on doing anyway. And I love me a good coupon!
Along with the energy audit, you may also receive an energy efficiency kit. Ours came with:
- Low-flow shower heads: we never installed ours because my husband balanced the opportunity cost and decided he’d rather pay more for water to have higher pressure – to each their own!
- Foam insulation inserts for outlets and light switches: it’s amazing how much heat escapes from the house in winter through these holes cut in your drywall, and ditto on that cold air in the summer.
- LED light bulbs: these are far more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs. Not only do they use less energy, but they don’t get as hot, so if you have a young, naïve child like I was and they put their Beanie Babies on top of their table lamps, an LED bulb won’t melt the bears’ butts.
- Information booklet: this included more tips and tricks on how to save energy and reduce your electric bill, many of which stuck with us and we’ve included below.
Upgrading your light bulbs for better efficiency
I worked in what we called the red-headed stepchild building that no one wanted to pay to maintain because it was a sublease of a lease and no one wanted responsibility. Very few things around there got fixed, and it was a fight to even keep toilet paper and soap stocked in the bathrooms. But man, when they found out how much money they could save with LED lights, they were out there replacing every light in the building the next week.
LED lights can be expensive, so you might not want to upgrade your entire house at once. Even with an energy audit kit, you’ll likely only get a few bulbs. To save on a huge upfront investment, upgrade your current lights as the bulbs die or you swap out lamps. It really makes a difference on the electric bill, both from the energy the light draws and from less heat given off warming up the room, which you then have to negate with A/C.
Utilize natural light and air
When we moved to Colorado, we didn’t turn on the heat or air conditioning for about seven months in our apartment. If it was nice out, we opened the windows. If it was cold out, we threw on extra blankets or sweaters and my skiing socks (which I’m wearing as I write this article).
While our house doesn’t offer as much natural insulation as the apartment surrounded by a bunch of other units, we follow a similar pattern now: windows closed and jackets on in the mornings when it’s close to 40F, then I open the windows later in the day as it warms up outside and my computer warms up my office.
Every day before I sat down at my desk to work in the apartment, I opened the blinds so that I could work by natural light, which honestly feels better than harsh overhead lights. Now, I confess, I leave the curtains closed until after the sun comes up to help provide extra insulation from the cold. But once that fireball in the sky makes its appearance, I draw back the curtains and turn off my table lamps. We do our best to leave the lights off in the house, instead opening blinds and curtains during the day in the rooms we’re in to get that free lighting from the sun.
Address leaks and insulate
Ahhh, caulk it. Caulk it real good! We also learned this after homeownership the first go around. When we bought our second home in the dead of winter, my husband spent the first weekend sleeping at the house on an air mattress to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze with the below freezing weather. Super bored with no internet and zero other furniture, he went around the house with an infrared temperature gun and found all the cold pockets, which provided him with a honey-do list of where we needed to seal up.
Heat rises, so make sure you check your attic insulation.
While dripping your faucets in the winter can help prevent your pipes from bursting, an unintentional water leak is something to address ASAP. YouTube is an amazing thing, and you can likely fix most small plumbing leaks with a little DIY, which will also save you big over getting it professionally repaired by a plumber or handyman.
Add outlet insulators
We touch on this in the point above, but it’s worth highlighting separately, just in case you can’t get an energy audit, or you don’t get enough insulators in your energy efficiency kit. This is one of the cheapest fixes that can really add up. When we moved to Colorado, it was one of the first things we did, as we were putting outlet covers back on after painting, before we even moved in. This was during the winter and holy hell, you wouldn’t believe how much colder it was with the outlet covers off, especially on the lower floor.
If you’re super budget conscious for implementation, focus on outlets on the external walls, as that’s where you’re losing the most energy. Look for sets of insulators at places like Walmart versus more expensive hardware stores.
Beware of vampires in your outlets
By unplugging electronic devices you aren’t using, you can prevent them from drawing “phantom” energy. Granted, it isn’t much for each device; my husband actually measured it with the Kill a Watt tool we have. But if you consider how many devices you have plugged in around the house, it can certainly add up. I have a power strip next to my nightstand where I keep everything (phone charger, Kindle charger, tablet charger, laptop cord, etc.) plugged in. I unplug the power strip at night before I go to bed, leaving just the lamp plugged into the wall so I can fumble out of bed in the morning without taking an eye out on the corner of the nightstand. In the kitchen, we leave the smaller appliances, such as the toaster, electric kettle, and blender unplugged except when in use.
I double check this when heading out on vacation as not only does it help save energy, but it can help prevent an electrical fire while you’re gone.
Turn off lights and devices when you leave the room
When I was a kid, if my mom walked into a room and no one was there but lights were on, we’d get the lecture. “What, you think we own stock in the electric company? Turn the light off!” Since I still don’t own stock in our utility company, that mantra has stuck with me.
If you aren’t using it, turn it off! Little changes add up over time. This doesn’t just apply for lights. Make sure the kids turn the TV off when leaving the room, and that you shut down your computer when you’re ready to step away.
Practice water conservation
Cut your shower time down. Yes, I’m talking to those of you who like to stand and relax in the steam for twenty minutes after a long day. Take a page from our national parks and challenge yourself with a timer to get in and out. And don’t even think about filling up that entire deep bathtub and then showering after you soak. That’s a big no go, bro.
Consider cutting down on the frequency of your bathing, too. When we bathe too often, we rob our bodies of natural oils. Being too clean can actually be bad for us. Consider showering every other day or after big workouts versus every day or twice a day.
Consider your cooking method
I love me a baked sweet potato that’s caramelized or a warm casserole, but cooking in the oven is way less efficient than the stovetop. And you’d be amazed at how much energy your microwave uses, when you might get by with your Instant Pot instead.
I’m not saying you have to switch up your entire meal routine to save a few cents on your electric bill, but be mindful of your energy when cooking. A soup in a pressure cooker can be a lot cheaper than simmering it on the stove for hours. And grilling outside in the summer can keep you from warming up your entire kitchen, needing to pay for both the stove and the A/C to cool everything back down.
Set phasers to save & use a programmable thermostat
If you want Scotty to beam your electric bill down, consider programming your thermostat if capable, or investing in a new programmable thermostat when you’re ready for an upgrade. While science proves that you sleep better at colder temperatures, you don’t need the air or heat set to 67F all day, every day. Set the thermostat to a warmer setting during the day in the summer and vice versa in the winter. Then only have it drop to that optimal temperature around your usual bedtime. Find a reasonable baseline that’s outside of your peak comfort zone that will prevent the A/C or furnace from kicking on as much.
If you need more convincing, check out The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, which talks about the issue with setting our lives to one temperature 24/7. Dare yourself to be a little less comfortable. It’s good for you!
Be careful not to go overboard, though. Balance what you can tolerate versus the cost. In Florida, we left the A/C at 78F during the day. We could have tolerated it closer to 81F, but my husband didn’t want to be that guy sweating through his dress shirt during a work Zoom. And I got tired of needing to wear gloves so my hands wouldn’t shake while typing during the few weeks of winter when we tried to avoid turning the heat on all year. Not worth it.
Turn down for what: adjust the thermostat when leaving the house
If you’re going on vacation, adjust the thermostat accordingly. While you don’t want your pipes to freeze in the winter to save a little money on your gas or electric bill, and you don’t want your house to get so humid in the summer you get mold while you’ve escaped to the mountains, you can save big by adjusting for climate versus comfort when you aren’t home.
This doesn’t apply only to vacations. If you’re going to be out and about for part or all of the day using someone else’s air or heat, adjust yours at home while you’re out. Depending on the schedule you have set up on your thermostat, you may need to switch to manual mode to keep it from overriding your cost-cutting measures while you’re out.
Upgrade to energy-efficient appliances
While it doesn’t make sense to drop $800 on a new, more efficient refrigerator to save a couple bucks on your electricity, it’s something to consider when your appliance is getting thrown on the Monty Python death cart (not dead yet!). When we had to replace our roof in Florida thanks to our insurance company, we opted for the lighter shingles that were rated Energy Star efficient. They were the same cost as the darker shingles, but saved us more on cooling in the summer. I can’t remember 100%, but I think we received some sort of incentive on our tax return since it was energy efficient. It doesn’t hurt to check, as energy tax incentives can add up to decent savings on top of your electric bill.
The final word
Some of our strategies above will make a much more noticeable difference than others. Some also have an initial investment you have to make in order to see large gains in the future. It’s always worth assessing the opportunity cost of the trade-off and making sure you have room in your budget to afford the swap. If you have to put your new attic insulation on a credit card you don’t pay off every month, you’re going to spend more in interest payments than you’ll save on your utility bills.
While you might not be willing to do everything above (shower every other day? Don’t ask me to stand by you at the airport, stinky!), we hope these ideas at least make you more mindful so you assess where you might have waste in your life, and where you could save the most.