New Year’s Resolutions: Saving Electricity

The year 2020 is finally behind us, and 2021 provides us with a tremendous opportunity to make some much-needed changes to our lives. For most people, 2020 saw some unprecedented and unforeseen changes, one of the biggest of which meant spending more time at home. That has led to a sharp increase in energy consumption as we turned our bedrooms, kitchens, and dens into classrooms and office workspaces. As a result, it should come as little surprise that you may very well have seen your electricity consumption sharply increase.

With the start of the year 2021, now is the perfect time to make some changes to your life and your home that can help mitigate some of these cost increases and improve your overall quality of life. These New Year’s resolutions are easier than you might think as well, often involving only a slight amount of effort or minimal investment on your part. First up, here are some easy ways you can resolve to reduce your bills by saving electricity.

Turn the Lights Off

One of the easiest ways to save energy? Simply turn off the lights in rooms you aren’t using. This became a much bigger deal over the last year, as kids started to spend more time at home. Young children would often get up and leave the room while also leaving the lights on. Did they intend to come back? Maybe. However, those wasted hours of running lights and other devices without their being used add up. Over the course of the year, it could mean quite a bit. If you want to start saving this year, have the whole family commit to turning lights off when they aren’t in use. Over time, this small amount of extra effort can add up to big savings.

Switch to LED Lighting

LED lighting is an incredible investment in your home’s energy consumption. An LED lightbulb uses roughly 10 to 20 percent of the energy that a traditional incandescent bulb uses, meaning you’d have to leave one of these lights on for anywhere from five to ten hours to consume the same amount of energy that an old bulb would have used in just one. Likewise, LED bulbs are also more durable and last longer, meaning you won’t have to deal with the frequent annoyance that is a suddenly burned-out bulb.

Install Energy-Efficient Appliances

Spending more and more time at home has brought to light a number of issues that many homes have, and as a result, many people have begun pouring money into making improvements and fixing things that have fallen apart over time. One such thing might be your appliances: old appliances consume more energy and frankly don’t look as nice as their sleek, modern counterparts. Whether it’s a refrigerator or stove, or something you don’t see like a water heater or air conditioner, make sure that you take energy consumption into consideration when choosing your new unit.

Fortunately, this has become easier than ever thanks to extensive documentation. Every major appliance includes an energy guide label that indicates how much energy that a particular appliance uses compared to other similar units. Choosing one that has a lower energy consumption will help you save in the long term. Even though these systems may have a higher upfront investment, they will help you save in the long run by keeping your bills lower every month.

Adjust Your Heating & Cooling Usage

The biggest electricity consumer in any home over the course of the year is by far your heating and cooling equipment. Whether it’s summer air conditioning or winter heating, these systems use an abundance of power to keep us comfortable, and that became more important than ever over the course of 2020. With that showing few signs of changing, now is a great time to adjust how we use our HVAC equipment in order to cut back on energy consumption. For example, using natural heat from the sun to keep you warm in winter lets you shut off your furnace for a time, and likewise using the cool air of a summer evening to keep you comfortable can do wonders for your bills.