Our power bill is too darn high!

Published 12:00 pm Thursday, July 25, 2019

For the month of June, my family’s power bill was in excess of $200. I was unpleasantly surprised by that and immediately vowed to figure out ways to cut down on how much power we use. Without sacrificing my AC, of course. I despise being hot.

I turned to my most trusted resource for information and tips: Pinterest. After getting distracted by pictures of kitchen redos, Captain America tumblr threads and one especially deep rabbit hole of cross stitch patterns, I finally pulled together a compilation of tips I consider useful.

Now, naturally, everyone’s situation is different, and some things that came up aren’t within my ability, either for economic reasons (a tankless water heater would be amazing, but I can’t just go buy a new appliance) or because I am not about to mess about with rewiring stuff in my house.

Unplug

The simplest thing I found on virtually every list was to unplug stuff. Yeah, everyone knows about unplugging phone chargers when you’re not using them and turning the lights off when you leave a room, but every electric device uses power if it’s plugged in, whether it’s being used or not. The toaster oven, the coffee maker, the printer, the tv, the wax burner, all are sucking power from their outlet like energy vampires. Unplug them until you need to use them. It takes maybe an extra two seconds to plug something in before using it, so it’s not like you’d be wasting that much time.

The most difficult thing for us is phone chargers. Each of us leave the charger plugged in and we put our phones on the charger at night. I learned that overcharging a phone battery will actually decrease the use time between charges, so that is one habit we’re going to try to change.

 For things that you use often or are plugged into outlets that are hard to reach, use a power strip that has an on/off switch. Many power strips also double as surge protectors, which can save electronics in the event of a power surge, so bonus! Of course, don’t unplug things like the fridge or stove, or especially the router.

I ended up unplugging 21 things in my house in one evening. I walked around my house singing “Another One Bites The Dust” every time I found another energy vampire to unplug.

Peak Usage Times

Another simple thing to do is figure out when peak usage times are. Peak usage times are when customers use the most electricity, which means it costs more for the power company to produce the electricity and thus costs you, the consumer, more. Put off things like running the dishwasher or doing laundry until you’re outside those times. Contact your power company to find out what those times are.

Our power company doesn’t have peak hours, they simply charge a higher rate from June through October no matter what time of the day it is, so this doesn’t apply to us.

Something we can do, however, is not use high energy appliances as often.

Use Appliances Less

We tried meal prepping as a way to not eat out every day, but it came with the added benefit of us not using the stove or the dishwasher as often. We, or I should say my husband, cooked enough meals that we could have both lunch and dinner already made for the whole week and put individual portions in plastic containers in the fridge. All we have to do it heat it up and eat it right out of the container, then wash the container, lid and fork. Honestly, it’s easier to just wash those things by hand, which means we aren’t using the dishwasher every day.

Laundry is a little different. I have a method for washing clothes and it’s hard to deviate from that. One thing we can do is make sure we’re only washing full loads and try to line-dry items. Is it a pain? Well, yeah. It’s more physical labor to hang things on a line or a drying rack, it takes more time to dry, and I hate how it makes the towels crunchy. You also have to worry about bleaching your colors. But, it will save you a bundle and nothing beats the smell of line dried sheets.

If you do use the dryer, make sure you clean out the lint trap every single time and get some dryer balls. These balls of wool bounce around as the dryer spins, fluffing the clothes and allowing them to dry more efficiently. I’m kinda crunchy, so I like that they’re eco-friendly and that I can drop essential oil on them and make the clothes smell good.

In the summer you can lower the temperature of the water heater, which will save money because the hotter the temperature, the more power the water heater uses to heat it up. And honestly, it’s summer, we all want lukewarm showers anyway. You can also reduce the amount of power your water heater uses by washing clothes in cold water.

Medium Cost Ways to Help

The above items are basically free, they just require habit changes and Constant Vigilance!

There are some other things you can do that have a cost or mean you have to buy something, but also should pay for themselves in savings.

Make It Dark

The darker your home, the cooler it will be. If you can, get light-blocking curtains or add light-blocking fabric to your existing window treatments. Keeping the sun out will go a long way towards keeping the house cool. This is something I’m trying to get used to since I like a lot of light in my home and tend to throw open the curtains and open the blinds.

Switching out light bulbs to LEDs is another way to save energy, as is installing a dimmer switch. Light bulbs throw off heat, so keeping the lights low or off will keep it cooler, which means you can set your AC a little higher.

Seal It Up

Make sure your home is well-insulated.

A quick way to check up on this is to look at the doors and windows. If you can see light coming in, you have yourself a leak. Grab some weather stripping and some foam insulation and seal those leaks. Outlets and light switches located on exterior walls are also culprits for that precious AC leaking out, so either get some foam insulation or pre-cut socket insulation made specifically for this purpose.

Appliances

A programmable thermostat will let you have more control over the temperature inside your home. If you set it higher when you’re not there, then have it kick on a short time before you get home it’ll save on energy costs by keeping the AC from running all day.

If you’re in the market for new appliances, make sure they are energy saving ones if at all possible. Now, our appliances are all second-hand and were purchased with cost in mind, but a little research can check the energy use ratings on anything, even a used washing machine. If you’re not going to replace appliances, make sure they’re in good working order (check the seals, clean the coils, clean the lint catcher, change filters).