As you and your family spend more time at home during the winter months, you may notice a slight rise in your electricity bills. Fortunately, you don’t just have to put up with the higher cost. In fact, there are many things that you can do to reduce your electricity bills during this upcoming winter season.
Get Rid of Incandescent Lighting
If any of your lighting fixtures are still using incandescent bulbs, it’s time to upgrade. LEDs use 90% less energy than incandescent lighting and last up to 25 times longer. Even better, you can add dimmer switches so that you can adjust how strong you want the light to be.
Insulate Your Water Heater
Unfortunately, water heaters tend to be put in areas that are unheated, like basements and utility closets. When the weather outside starts to drop, it can affect the performance of your water heater. Your water heater will have to run longer to combat the heat loss from the cold weather. One great way to prevent excess energy usage is to simply insulate your water heater. You can do this with an insulating jacket that fits around your water heater to help keep more heat inside it.
Use Smart Ceiling Fans
Having ceiling fans in your home is a great way to enhance the efficiency of your HVAC systems throughout the entire year. The more efficient these systems are, the less money you’ll have to spend on energy bills. The beauty of smart ceiling fans is they offer automatic controls that will turn on the fan when it senses that someone walks into the room. This will ensure that you can get maximum usage of your fans with very minimal effort on your part.
Invest in Smart Lighting
Smart lighting easily connects to your smartphone for ease of use. It gives you the ability to control and set lighting features while monitoring your usage in real time. For example, you can opt to have your lights dim at a certain time in the evening to use less energy. You can set your outside lights to turn off during specific hours so that you don’t end up running them all day. Smart lighting makes it easier to be more efficient with your energy usage.
Get Smart Power Strips
Power strips can be extremely helpful when you have multiple items that you need to plug in, such as your television or gaming system. Smart power strips take it up a notch by allowing you to control the power strip from the convenience of your smartphone. Furthermore, you can set a timer for when your power strip should turn off so that the devices plugged into it don’t use phantom energy at times when you’re not actively using them. These power strips can even let you know how much energy each socket is drawing, making you more informed about each device’s energy usage.
Use Smart Energy-Efficient Appliances
Smart appliances can be a great investment for any homeowner looking to reduce their energy bills. From smart washers and dryers to smart refrigerators and freezers, there are so many smart appliances available on the market today. These are designed to be more energy-efficient than their counterparts. Even some smart washers and dryers can let you know what hours are the cheapest to run based on off-peak hours from your utility company.
Implement Dimmers
Dimmers are a great addition to any home to help better minimize your energy usage. Installing them on all your overhead lights can be highly beneficial. You may even want to consider smart dimmers that you can easily control from your phone as you may be more inclined to use them as opposed to switches on your wall.
Motion Sensors
Integrating motion sensors into your lighting system can be a great way to reduce energy bills. Most people are familiar with outside motion sensors that turn your outdoor lights on when they sense that you’re in the area. You can get these lights for inside your home too. This will automatically shut your light off if the sensor doesn’t sense anyone after a set amount of time.
Consider Going Solar
If you want to take a large step toward greatly reducing your energy bills, you can invest in solar panels. These can allow you to easily take advantage of free energy from the sun throughout most of the daytime hours. If you want to go all in, you can invest in a battery system where you can save the excess solar energy you don’t use during daylight hours to use in the evening.
Use More Natural Lighting
One free way to help save on your energy bills in the wintertime is to allow more natural light into your home. This works in a couple of different ways to help reduce your energy bills. First, it allows you to have lighting while doing your tasks without having to rely on overhead lighting. Second, natural light can heat the temperature inside your rooms so that your heating system has to run less often to keep you warm.
Use a Smart Thermostat
One great investment to help lower your energy usage is a smart thermostat. This will allow you to control your HVAC system from your smartphone easily. You can program in a set schedule to help maximize energy savings. Newer smart thermostats are even integrated with smart learning technology that will adjust your temperature settings to optimize your comfort while reducing your energy bills.
Use the Automatic Cycle on Your Dryer
Many new dryers come integrated with an automatic cycle. This cycle will provide heat to the items in your dryer until it senses that there’s no moisture. This automatic cycle essentially only runs long enough to dry out your clothes adequately and then shuts off. This will allow your dryer to run less often than it would if you were to set a predetermined run time. This cycle allows you to only use the energy necessary to dry your clothes.
Get an Energy Audit
By far, one of the best things you can do to lower your energy bills during the winter is to get an energy audit. A professional will come out to your home and assess your energy usage. They will identify areas where you can enhance your energy savings, such as integrating the use of dimmers and smart devices. This will let you know where your problems lie and give you solutions for reducing excess energy usage to lower your monthly bills.
Reliable Electrician Service
Absolute Electric offers reliable electrician service to the entire Sterling, VA area. We can also help with all your electrical repair, EV charging, outdoor lighting, indoor lighting, surge protection, electrical repair, attic fan, ceiling fan, light switch, outlet, smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, and AFCI protection needs. Call us today to get the service that you need for your home.
