How can I save more money on my electric (energy) bill?

Question

We already turn the air up pretty high when we leave our house & during the day. We keep lights off as much as possible. What else can I do! I have a 2000 squarefoot house and have 300 dollar electric bills each month!

Answer 1

Do you know that up to 75 percent of the electricity you used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.

Answer 2

Not really sure if this will help, but here's hoping.

Turn everything off that you don't need when you go to bed (this is for safety reasons as well as to save money). Things that have to time manually set on them obviously don't count unless you can be bothered resetting it every day or just leaving it at whatever.

Don't leave T.V's, computers etc. on standby, ALWAYS turn them right off, at the wall socket, preferably.

Buy energy saving lightbulbs for lights such as lamps, you don't need to replace EVERY lightbulb in your house with an energy saving one, but a couple WILL help.

Sorry,that's all i can think of =/

Answer 3

I hope you mean turn the air down when you leave.  Start by looking at every thing that is plugged in, TV's use elec even when off, coffee pots, radios, stereos, VCR, DVD etc...unplug and plug in when using it.  Wash in cold water as much as possible, try to reduce the dryer use (big one) line dry.  Close your drapes in the summer to block sun reduces cooling costs. Do not leave a cell charger plugged in when not charging, anything with a transformer type plug in unplug when not in use (you can feel the warmth from the elec use).  Try to reduce the use of your stove and oven, grilling or mcrowaveing is less elec. use.  Check with your power company for discounts do they offer off peak elec. rates?  Showers are another big energy user, heating the water shorter showers or shower later in evening during low demand times.  Change your light bulbs to hallogen energy efficient ones, saves in the long run. If you have extra rooms not in continuous use close the vents off to that area and unplug all elec. cords why heat or cool if not in use.  Use your air only during the hottest days, turn thermostat control for air to 75 during the day when you are gone, open the wndows at night after the sun goes down and it is cooler.  It is alot cheaper to buy and run a electric fan than running the air.  Lastly Google "energy efficiency"  Good Luck!

Answer 4

There are a few things.  

If you are a big AC user and also live in a area where heating is a major factor.  Switching your furnace or air handler to one using DC rectified motors such as a Carrier infinity 96 or ICS will save you tons.  They for example use .5 of a amp vs. 4-6 like a conventional furnace.  It really makes a huge diffrence and the product will pay for itself fast thanks to that and its ability to also use much less fuel.

Its also not good practice to turn the tempature up during the day.  In winter its good to let the temp go down during the day when your not there and then bring it back up when your home.  However in summer there is another factor, humidity.  By turning your temp up during the day you let humidity back into the home.  Your ac will have to work much harder to bring your house back down in tempature and humidity by the time you get home.  

If for example you like having the house at 21c, set it for 23 when your not home.  Your ac will only come on in short bursts to bring the temp back down rather then work for hours to bring the humidity down.  

Lastly change as many bulbs with high efficency bulbs.  and dont leave the TV on.  The TV is a huge user of hydro.  

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

There are many ways to do this and It sounds like you are all ready on it for the most part, You could go to a website called supermediastore.com and buy a Wattsdog, this little thing plug in to your lamp, tv, and so on and tells you how much electric it uses while it is on or off. You could shut off the breaker to the clothes dryer and hang them outside as well as the dishwasher, do them by hand. stop the in and out traffic to the house, use shades and heavy drapes on the sunny side of you house in the afternoon hours, if you have a deep freeze then sell it and let the store store your food, you could preplan your meals a day or two ahead and you will have more space in your house by not having a deep freezer, if you are freezing food in your fridge freezer and not using it then this is more waste, use up what you have before you buy more and don't buy stuff because it is on sale, buy it because you will USE it in the next couple of days Look for energy star on all your electrical items