What if you could give yourself a little financial boost every month by cutting down on your electricity bill? It's possible by addressing certain hidden electricity costs around your home. What could be better than avoiding the monthly dread most of us feel when we look at the electricity bill and see how much more energy we've used than we calculated? You can do that by eliminating the hidden costs associated with electricity.
What Are Some Hidden Energy Costs?
Your energy bill can be reduced in many ways. Here are some top suggestions for reducing hidden costs.
Run energy-gobbling appliances at off-peak hours. Electricity generally costs more when it's being consumed at peak hours, such as between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Make a point of washing and drying clothes or running the dishwasher at off-peak hours, when demand is less, so that you are paying less for energy. Some homeowners with well-insulated homes make a practice of running the air conditioner at a colder temperature at night so they don't have to turn it up so high during the day while the house is still holding cool air.
Eliminate energy vampires. All over your house, you may have appliances and devices that are consuming energy while they are supposedly "off," such as DVD players, VCRs, cable and satellite boxes, digital TV converters, video game consoles, standby coffeemakers, and many other appliances, which may continue to draw energy when you think they are off. Plug all these devices into a power strip and turn the strip off when the appliances are not in use.
Choose more efficient appliances. As your appliances age and wear out, be sure you replace them with models that are more efficient and that use less energy, such as those rated by the government's Energy Star program.
When replacing your HVAC system, make sure the new system is sized correctly. Calculate the right size with industry software rather than going by square footage and guesswork. The wrong-size HVAC system will result in greater hidden costs.
For more on the hidden costs of running your HVAC system, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.