5 Ways To Pay Less For Your Energy

If you’ve noticed that your energy bills have been climbing lately, you’re certainly not the only one. Due to a variety of different factors, energy is becoming more and more expensive, so much so that it can cause real financial problems for some people. Even those who can afford the rises will likely prefer to spend their money on other things. It might seem as though there isn’t a lot that can be done about this; the money you have to spend on energy is not something you can change, you simply have to keep spending it and cut costs elsewhere, isn’t that right?

The truth is that, although you will have to keep paying for your gas and electricity, there are ways you can reduce that cost, and in some cases that reduction can be fairly significant. Some options are easier to implement than others, so it will depend on how you want to go about things and how much you need to save as to what you actually do. Read on to find out what some of these money-saving ideas are so you can formulate a plan.

1. Lower Your Thermostat
Lowering your thermostat is one of the easiest things you can do that will have a significant positive impact on how much you pay for your energy each month. Studies have shown that by lowering the temperature in your home by five degrees, you can save as much as fifteen percent on your bills. What’s really great about this is that five degrees is not something most people will particularly notice; it might feel a little cooler at first, but you’ll get used to it, and soon it will feel very comfortable. In fact, it is said that having your bedroom cool or even cold at night is good for your health, so this will be a positive in a number of different ways.

2. Expert Servicing
It might be that you are paying out more than you should be in terms of your energy costs because some of your appliances are not working in the right way. When an appliance, such as a boiler or air conditioning unit, is not working well, it can be using a lot more energy than it should be. Interestingly, a lot of the time you won’t even know this is the case – as long as your water is getting hot and your home is cooled or heated, you won’t realize that something is wrong.

Having your appliances serviced regularly by experts such as Air Force Air Conditioning & Heating means that if something is wrong and they are not being efficient, this problem can quickly be solved. Even if nothing is wrong, tuning your AC up every year means that you can actually prevent these issues from occurring, and therefore save yourself a lot of money. Make sure you book these jobs in every year and you’ll bring your energy usage – and spending – down.

3. Seal Your Windows
Are your windows properly sealed? It might be that your heating (and cooling) is disappearing through the cracks around your windows, sometimes cracks so small you can’t see them. If this happens, you’ll find you have to turn your thermostat up higher to compensate, for example. This, of course, leads to more expense (and it’s bad for the environment to be using so much energy unnecessarily).

The good news is that this is an easy DIY fix. You can buy special weather stripping which is placed around the windows, sealing them tightly. In this way, the hot air won’t escape, and you can reduce the temperature on your thermostat (which, as we’ve seen above, is a great idea anyway) because your home will stay warmer. In the summer, you won’t have to have your air conditioning unit on full blast because less hot air will be coming in from outside, and again, this will save you money.

4. Use Less Water
Not everyone is on a water meter, so using less water isn’t going to help them when it comes to their bills, but there are other advantages which we’ll come to shortly. If you are on a water meter and you pay for every drop of water you use, using less of it is going to clearly save you money. Yet using less water might seem impossible; you’ll still want to drink it, wash in it, and use it to clean your home. You might want to water plants too. So how can you use less?

It’s very simple. Just think about how much you use now. When you’re brushing your teeth, do you leave the faucet running? If you do, turn it off when you’re brushing – that instantly saves liters of water. Do you have more baths than showers? If so, try minimizing how many baths you have; save them for a once a week treat since they use a lot more water than showers. If you currently do laundry every day or every couple of days, try to do it just once a week. As you can see, water is an important part of life, but it is possible to still do everything you need to do and just use less of it.

Earlier we mentioned that using less water was a good idea regardless of whether or not you’re on a water meter. This is because using less water is good for the environment; the fewer natural resources we can use, the healthier the planet will be, so making an effort to conserve water is a good idea no matter how you pay for it.

5. Destroy Your Energy Vampires
It’s likely you’ve never heard of an “energy vampire”. It sounds like something from a story or horror movie, but these things are actually real, and it’s probable that you have more than one in your home right now. Energy vampires are appliances that are using energy even if they are switched off, meaning that you’re paying too much because you’re paying for things you’re not using. Perfect examples of this would be a mobile phone charger left in the socket but not charging anything, or a laptop left on standby all night.

If you were to unplug everything you’re not using, and only plug it back in when you want to use it, and if you were to switch everything completely off rather than using the standby option, you’ll find you can save a fair amount of energy, and therefore money. It might take a while to get into the habit, but it will be worth it.