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Ask Us How To Save

MVEC offers tips to help keep electric bills low

Our member service professionals here at Magic Valley Electric Cooperative often get questions about how to save money on electric bills. Because we are a nonprofit electricity provider owned by those we serve, we’re happy to provide some pointers.

The best techniques for saving energy are often the simplest ones. For instance, if every American replaced one incandescent lightbulb with an LED, we would save about $600 million in annual energy costs and prevent nine billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That’s enough to power three million homes and roughly the amount of gases produced by 800,000 cars in a year.

Small steps add up! Here are five more easy ways to save energy—and money—in your home.

Turn off the fan when you leave a room. Fans don’t cool the air; they only cool people by moving warm air across skin. The motor on the fan actually adds heat to the room, which is another reason to turn it off when you leave.

Close your drapes or lower your window shades during the day. Keeping sunlight out during the heat of the day keeps a house cooler.

Wash your clothes in cold water. Much of the energy used to wash your clothes goes to heating the water. Cold water is just as effective for getting clothes clean with today’s high-efficiency washers and cold-water detergents.

Wrap or cover foods and drinks in the refrigerator. Did you know that when foods release moisture, they make the compressor work harder to keep the appliance cold? So, put those leftovers in a reusable container with a lid or cover them with plastic.

Always use the cold-water faucet unless you really want hot water. Turning on the hot water requires energy to heat the water, even if it doesn’t reach the faucet before you turn it off. So, use cold water, especially for cooking.

These are just a few simple ideas to help you save. You can always turn to Magic Valley EC professionals for more information about energy conservation and safety.