According to an IEA report (International Electricity Agency), electricity consumption in 2018 was 22,315 TWh. This was 4% higher than the previous year. The report itself shows how much electricity is used across the world, and this increased demand is causing a hike in the cost of its consumption. While turning off unnecessary lights can reduce your electricity consumption, it is not well enough to save you an ample amount of bucks on electricity bills. Modern-day homes are filled with several electronic appliances and IoT (Internet of Things) devices that can consume a lot of electricity daily. Therefore, you need to adopt other methods to ensure that electric appliances are off when not in use. Here’s a list of the best and easiest tips to save you a few bucks on your electricity bills.
Use energy-saving lights
Suppose you want to have a small-sized pool in your house. The architect can easily fit the pool in your home, but the costs don’t limit only to that. If you have a pool, you will need some lighting close around it for night usage. The lighting can cost you a fortune in the long term. What you can do here is ask your swimming pool contractor to install energy-efficient led light strips in your pool. This will make your pool glow in the night while saving you money on electricity bills. Similarly, you can use energy-saving lights anywhere within and around your house. Using certified energy-efficient lighting can help you save around 5% of energy consumption.
Optimize natural resources’ usage
Utilizing natural resources such as sunlight and natural air is a great way to reduce energy consumption. Keep your curtains open during the daytime so that you don’t have to use any lights for visibility. During the winter, sunlight can also help keep your house warm, thereby eliminating the need for using heaters in the daytime. It would help if you also kept the windows open for ventilation purposes. This will bring a cool natural breeze inside the house. It will help you prevent excessive use of air conditioners.
Maintain electronic appliances
The older the appliances, the higher is their energy consumption. Hence, try replacing your old appliances. But apart from this, it is also essential to maintain your electronic appliances to improve their efficiency. For instance, cleaning the filters of air conditioners can help them work efficiently. This will reduce their energy consumption and lower your bills.
Install smart thermostat
A smart or programmable thermostat allows you to preset a temperature for your house. This is very useful to turn off your home’s heating or cooling appliances, especially during the nighttime. For instance, if you set the room temperature to be 18 degrees during the night time, then the smart thermostat will automatically turn off your AC once the temperature hits 18. It will also restart the AC if the room temperature becomes more than 18 degrees. Thus, you can end up saving on unnecessary inflated electricity bills easily.
Buy energy-efficient appliances
There are all sorts of appliances available out there. Some of these are energy-efficient and consume less electricity as compared to others. These energy-efficient appliances are validated and marked with an Energy Star label. Although these appliances have more initial upfront costs, they can save you a huge sum in annual operating and maintenance costs. For instance, a certified clothes’ washer will consume less energy while operating and on standby than a standard washer. It will also need around 30% to 45% less water for washing.
Regulate your HVAC system
HVAC systems take up around 30 percent of your monthly energy consumption. When these systems get old, they become less efficient and start consuming more energy. Inappropriate installation of HVAC systems can also lead to high energy consumption to ventilate and maintain your home’s temperature. Hence, it is best to communicate with professionals regarding regulating your HVAC systems for maintenance purposes. You can also have them check whether the pipelines of your HVAC systems are right.
Saving on electricity is not only necessary so that you can save some money, but also so that we can together create a sustainable environment. Electricity is usually generated from resources such as coal, fossil fuel, oil, and natural gases. The entire process requires drilling, mining, and power plants that contribute to emissions growth. A study says that approximately 40% of CO2 emissions are due to fossil fuels’ combustion for generating electricity. Hence, it is also our social responsibility to save electricity and do our bit for the environment, and using the above-mentioned tips can help you with that.
