Government data showed that back in 2019, the average monthly household electricity use in the US was 877 kilowatt-hour (kWh) or roughly 10,649 kWh per year. Meanwhile, the state of Louisiana has the highest average electricity use among all US states at 1,273 kWh per month, followed by Tennessee at 1,245 kWh each month, and Mississippi at 1,220 kWh monthly.
Additional data revealed that most American households use the majority of their energy to power up their space heating system (41 percent) while the second-biggest power consumers are their appliances, lights, and electronic devices.
Now, no matter which state you live in right now and you do have high utility bills each month, you need to act soon to correct the situation lest you prefer to pay the high rates month after month.
Here are five simple tricks on how you can significantly slash your monthly power usage:
Prefer light paint colors over dark ones
It may not seem like much, but painting your home’s walls and ceilings with light colors could actually help bring down your monthly power consumption. This is because light colors are proven to better reflect light compared to dark hues, so you only have to open a few light bulbs each time.
In fact, with natural light coming in during the day, having light-colored ceilings and interior walls would allow you to ditch the need to switch on the lights, thus helping you save some dollars month after month.
Get proper insulation
Ask any home improvement contractor or DIY-savvy homeowner and the question about whether proper insulation is important in energy conservation would likely yield a similar answer: that it can lead to a dramatic drop in power consumption.
The truth is that the right insulation can offer a host of other benefits aside from just bringing down electricity bills. Proper insulation actually offers a degree of protection against fire, keeps moisture condensation to a minimum, and minimizes pollutant emissions.
With this, you need to inquire with reliable insulation companies about their rates to see which one offers the best value for money in terms of service charge and guaranteed efficiency of the insulation materials they’ll be installing in your home. With the right contractor, you can be sure about the quality of insulation you’ll be getting, thus the assurance of big savings over time.
Get all leaks properly sealed
Leaks could occur in windows, doors, attics, and elsewhere in the house where cold or hot air could escape. They are essentially among the most terrible ways of wasting your hard-earned money every month. And the fact that makes things sadder is that air leaks are perfectly preventable in the first place.
As such, be sure to practice your inner detective skills and scout for areas in your house where the air is silently leaking out. Once you’ve found the exact spots of air leaks, you need to seal them using caulk, spray foam, and other sealing materials that are appropriate for the job. If you’re quite unsure how to proceed, then just hire a professional to do the hard work so you can be sure about the quality of sealing to be done.
Inquire with your local power company about off-peak rates
Some local power companies actually charge less for power consumption during non-peak or off-peak hours (which is typically from 8 p.m. onwards). So, one way of hopefully bringing down your regular power bills is to check with your municipal or city electricity provider if they have such an arrangement for clients.
If you’re fortunate to live in a neighborhood where off-peak rates are available, then you could capitalize on that privilege by doing most of your household chores during such window periods. These include ironing the clothes, doing your laundry, and running other high-wattage electrical appliances such as microwave, vacuum cleaner, and oven toaster.
While this may mean tweaking your daily schedule to do the things you normally do during the day (peak hours) at night instead, the savings on your monthly power consumption would be worth the sacrifice.
Think sustainable energy practices
If you really want big energy savings that would go on for a long time, then invest in some sustainable power source and practice energy conservation. This includes investing in a solar power system, using LEDs instead of incandescents, and installing a programmable thermostat. They may seem like extra expenses at the start, but they’ll be worth your while in the end with the savings you’ll get monthly.
There are plenty of ways to bring down household power usage, but these five tricks would be more than enough to get you started. Do you know of other ways to save big on electricity? Share it in the comments section below.
