subject: Nine Free Actions That Reduce Your Energy Bill [print this page] There are dozens of things that you can do to reduce the cost of energy use in your home. Unfortunately, many of these things do require that you initially spend money before you see savings. That's a tough thing to swallow in a time when money is tight. Luckily there are some things that you can do for free that will help you reduce home energy spending.
Nine free actions that you can take today are:
1. Rearrange your furniture. The goal here is to make it so that you are usually seated away from the exterior walls of the home. Interior walls are warmer and therefore typically more comfortable during the fall, winter and spring seasons. Simply moving the furniture around with this in mind will reduce your need to heat your home with electricity.
2. Open and close your curtains. This is especially important as the weather begins to get cooler. Open your curtains during the day to let in the heat of the sunshine. Close them at night to keep that heat in. You won't need to spend as much energy to heat your home.
3. Close up your fireplace. Did you know that a lot of your home's energy gets sucked up into your fireplace chimney and goes away? Always keep the damper on your fireplace closed to prevent energy loss in the home.
4. Go twice as fast in the shower. One of the biggest energy losses in the home is the use of hot water for showering. If you don't want to take cold showers then aim to reduce your time in the shower by half. This can actually reduce your entire electricity bill by one third!
5. Use cold water to wash your clothes. This significantly reduces energy waste when doing laundry.
6. Always turn off lights and fans that are not in use. We say this all of the time. We all know it. But are you always doing it? This little free action can save you a lot of money over time.
7. Unplug all electronic devices when they are not in use. Take the phone charger out of the outlet. Turn the power strip off where your computer is. Do this every single time that you are not using the devices. If you must leave computers on, always set them to sleep when they aren't in immediate use.
8. Get rid of energy-draining appliances that you do not need. For example, do you have an extra freezer that is plugged in to a garage outlet? Clear it out and get rid of it. It's sucking up energy for no reason at all!
9. Compare electricity rates. You can do research online right now at no cost to find out what company is offering the lowest electricity rates in your area. Switching to a lower cost provider immediately lowers your bills without any other action on your part.
