9/21/13 Easy Ways to Save Money Around the House

So if you are like me, your electricity bill has a "season".  Season meaning when it's intensely high and about 4 times what it is the opposite half of the year. Mine happens to be summertime, living in a place where it can get to 120 degrees in July and August.  After purchasing a "new" home (built in 1945, 2650 square feet) recently and suffering a $600.01 electricity bill, I have had to find new areas of savings in my life.  

There are ways to soften the blow of an electricity bill, for instance, like signing up for an equalizer billing plan (aps.com) which does not save you money in a year, but levels out your bill so you pay similar amounts each month rather than (like me) $600 in July and $85 in December.

Although equalizing out your payments may benefit most people, what we really need to focus is on the amount of electricity we waste each day.  

Here are some ideas on how to save money every single day of the year:



1) Enroll in an energy saving plan with your electricity company.
For example, here in Arizona, one of the energy companies allows you to pick when you would like to use the majority of your electricity and rewards you for not using it at other times.  I enrolled in the Combined Advantage 7pm-noon after one month a new house.  It brought my bill from $600.01 to $435.47 in just one month!  How the plan works:
  
Combined Advantage 7pm-noon

This plan is designed for when you don’t use much energy during on-peak periods (noon – 7 pm, Monday - Friday) and can you stagger your use of major appliances during on-peak hours.

best if you

• use 1,000 kWh or more each month
• use your dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and range more during off-peak hours
• can use more energy during off-peak hours and use a timer to run major appliances (water heater, pool pump, spa heater)
• have a programmable thermostat or can set your AC to a warmer temperature during on-peak hours

  
2) Turn off lights/fans in rooms when not in use.
Turning off the light after you have left the room is simple enough, right?  If you haven't already adopted this easy way to save money, try it, see how much you save in just one month! You will be surprised!  Another way to save money, and slightly less obvious, is to turn off fans as well.  Fans will "cool" you if you are around them, but having a fan on will actually create more energy/heat and will actually increase the temperature of a room.  
 
So rule of thumb, if you are not in the room, turn off the fan...it does not actually cool the house. 

Visual example: if you have ever been to California, those big wind powered fans are creating energy.


3) Unplug electronic devices that you aren't constantly using.
I'm not talking about your refrigerator, which requires constant electricity, but we all have appliances in our homes that are plugged in that we don't use.  Chances are, you aren't constantly toasting Pop Tarts in your toaster, and can function without having your beloved toasting device plugged in more than five minutes a day.  Other ideas of electronic devices to unplug are blenders, bread makers, cell phone charger (when you aren't needing some "juice" for your phone) ,additional lighting (lights you don't normally turn on), and electronics in your guest room.  And TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER after you are done using it for the day!  It uses an average of 2.84 watts when it has been shutdown, but 73.97 watts when it is on.  So if you aren't planning on surfing the net in your sleep, hit the start menu and click "Shut down".



4) Seal holes in walls/doors
Besides switching to a more efficient energy plan, the way I severely reduced my electricity bill was by filling in holes from the outside on walls/windows.  Your situation may be slightly different than mine, considering I purchased a house where part of it was constructed in 1945, but even new houses have energy leakage.  Use special caulk spray to seal gaps around the window frame.  Here are some energy efficient windows available to look at online. I'm more of a Home Depot kind girl, but I'm sure Lowe's and places like Ace Hardware have similar windows.

Exterior doors may also be creating air leaks, so you also use caulk to seal gaps or cracks on your entrance doors as well.  Another easy, inexpensive fix to repair energy leaks around doors is to replace weather stripping around the door.  If your budget allows, consider replacing single pane windows with more energy efficient windows.



 If you have any other ways to save on energy in the household, please feel free to share them in the comments!