Why pay more for electricity than you have to? The less you use, the more you’ll save. Here are nine ways to pare down your electricity use this summer.
1. Move lamps, the TV and any other heat-emitting electric appliance away from your thermostat. The heat can trick the thermostat into thinking the house is hotter than it is, keeping the air conditioning running longer than it needs to.
2. If you’re still using incandescent light bulbs, switch to LED fixtures and bulbs. The LED bulbs last longer, emit less heat and use less electricity when they’re turned on.
3. Turn up the temperature. You can save as much as 10% on your bill by simply turning your thermostat up 7–10 degrees from its normal setting for eight hours a day.
4. Plant trees outside windows on the sunny side of your house. The shade will save you money on your cooling bill.
5. When you turn on your AC, turn on your ceiling fans too. Running them together will make your house feel 4 degrees cooler—so you can raise the thermostat by 4 degrees. Turn fans off when you leave a room; fans cool people, not the air.
6. Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees. That will save you money, and it’s safer than a higher setting because water hotter than 120 degrees can scald and burn.
7. Give your oven and stovetop a break on hot days. Use the microwave, toaster oven, air fryer, slow cooker or outdoor grill instead, and you’ll cut your energy use—plus you’ll put less unneeded extra heat into the house.
8. Early summertime is no time to coop yourself up indoors with your computer. Turn it off and enjoy the great outdoors. But don’t leave the computer on when you walk away; that wastes your valuable energy dollars.
9. Still don’t have a programmable thermostat? It’s time to get one. Choose a model that can automatically turn the AC up when you’re not home and crank it back down in plenty of time to cool things off so you’ll be comfortable when you return.
