Reduce Your Electric Bill

Electric bills always seem to be going up. Wouldn’t you like to find a way to reduce your electric bill? The electric company is certainly not going to voluntarily reduce the rate you pay for electricity. Your only remedy is to reduce the amount of electricity you use. That’s a good thing for your budget and a good thing for the environment.

The best way to reduce the amount of electricity and thus reduce your electric bill by making your house more energy efficient. Here are a few ideas you might be able to implement.

LED Lights

You can reduce the wattage in the lights in your house. I’m not a fan of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs, as I’ve written in an earlier post to this blog. Fortunately, they are being phased out by LED (light emitting diode) lights. Early versions of these light gave of a harsh, bluish light that was uncomfortable, to say the least. But advances in LED technology are quickly changing the way we produce light and much lower electrical consumption. Changing light bulbs may be the quickest and easiest way to reduce your electric bill.

Electricity Usage Monitor

Another way to reduce your electricity consumption is to change your habits and timing of your electricity use. Get an Electricity Usage Monitor. This device will show you which appliances use the most power and when. armed with this feedback, you and your family can use your electric appliances more efficiently. you might find out some things are running when they don’t need to be running.

Energy Management System

One very effective way to save on your electric bill is to switch how you pay for electricity. Typically, we pay a Standard Electric Rate. In other words, a set cost per kilowatt hour, regardless of what time of day the electricity is being used. But if your electric company allows, you can switch to a Demand Rate and pay based on your highest “demand” during “on-peak” hours and pay a lower rate for the power you use during off-peak hours.

This will require the installation of a Computerized Energy Management System. This device will prevent several appliances from running at the same time and creating a high on-peak spike in your electricity consumption. For example, if your electric dryer is running during peak electric rate hours and the thermostat calls for air conditioning, the management system will temporarily shut off the heating element in your dryer, but keep tumbling the clothes, while the compressor of the air conditioning system is running. Then when the air conditioning system shuts down, the management system will restart the heating element in the dryer and it will continue to dry the clothes. The use of the electricity is “levelled out” and there is no “peak” that could raise your rate. This kind of energy management system can immediately reduce your electric bill by 20% to 40%.

This is the same way industries have paid for their power for years. Now there is this smaller system for your home. It manages the peaks in your demand, thus reducing the rate the power company can charge you, thus reducing your electric bill. And best of all, you never know it’s doing anything because it doesn’t change anything about the way you live. Plus, you are helping the environment.

Help for the Environment

You might be wondering how this helps the environment if you are still using the same amount of electricity but just paying less for it. Well, if everyone had this system, the power companies would not have to produce as much power. They would not have as high a demand to meet during high-peak periods. You might already realize that power generating plants can’t be setback from hour to hour like your thermostat. They keep generating the same amount of electricity almost twenty four hours a day. And that amount must be enough to fulfill the highest demand. If the peak demand could be limited, less electricity would need to be produced. That means less fuel will be consumed, less pollution will be produced, and fewer new power plants will have to be built.

This is why a computerized energy management system is a very “good deed” for the environment and for your wallet. You’ll be reducing pollution, preserving fuel resources, and reducing your electric bill all at the same time.

You can learn more about designing your house to be energy efficient by reading Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

We would love to here your experiences with energy savings. Post a comment and share it with us.