Utility Bill Assistance

Many of the monthly bills we pay can be eliminated entirely but not the case with utility bills. Many utility company customers are watching their bills increase compared to the month a year ago.  Some has to do with weather and some has to do with the cost of natural resources. Here are a few proactive ways to control energy use and thus reduce monthly utility costs.

Water Usage Savings Tips

A common water waster is leaky faucets. Be sure to make certain that there are no faucets in the house that are leaking or dripping. Even a faucet that is dripping slowly will waste over two gallons of water per hour.
 
Next, in the summer when watering your lawn and garden be sure to set your watering schedule for the early morning, say from 6am to 8am. This will help minimize evaporation from the hot mid-day blazing sun.

This may be hard to do but take shorter showers. A normal shower will use around 6 to 10 gallons of water per minute. Imagine of how much water and money you would save if you reduced your time in the shower by even a few minutes.

This may sound obvious but another water saving tip is to use your dishwasher and clothes washer only when they have full loads. Use this tip in addition to contacting your water utility company to find out if they have reduced rates during certain hours of the day. If they do set the timer on your dishwasher, clothes washer and perhaps lawn sprinklers during this “discount” time.

Don’t dispose of water from your fish tank but recycle it instead by watering your plants with it. Liquid from fish tanks is a superior fertilizer and it’s inexpensive. It contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous. By recycling fish tank water you will save money on water and fertilizer.

Tips For Lowering Gas Usage

Use your fireplace during the winter months. It will heat the room where the fireplace is located much cheaper than your furnace will. Also, lower the temperature setting on your gas fired water heater. It is probably not required to heat your water over 130 degrees. Lowering this temperature setting will burn much less gas and in turn help to lower your gas bills. If your water heater is electric you should invest in a timer allowing you to turn the heat off  while not in use. This will save money on your electric bill really without making a sacrifice.

Also, by turning your thermostat down only three degrees in the winter it will save roughly three percent on your heating bill.
 
Lastly, weather-striping on all outside doors and windows together with insulating your attic will conserve heat in your home a lot more efficiently.

Tips For Saving Electricity

If you have to purchase a new appliance be sure to get one that will be energy efficient. Over the long run, you should be able to save hundreds of dollars per year by spending whatever extra money it takes to get the most energy  efficient model.
Speaking of appliances, stay in the habit of turning off every light and appliance that is not currently in use. You will be shocked at how quickly the electricity savings will start to add up.
 
If you or anyone in your household is not watching television always make sure that you keep it turned off. Your television can be the biggest electricity waster in your house.
When doing the laundry your dryer will always use quite a bit less energy if it dries loads of clothing one after another after another without pausing because your dryer will already be hot and not have to continually start-up cold. This is an easy way to save power and your dryer will take less time to do the job meaning your laundry get done much more quickly.

Use the latest low wattage  energy-efficient light bulbs or fluorescent lighting if possible. Fluorescent lights will normally last up to ten times longer than standard incandescent bulbs and will typically use seventy-five percent less electricity.

We can’t emphasize enough the benefit of calling your utility company and finding out if they offer off-peak hour rate reductions and if so what the off-peak hours are. Several utility companies will charge less for your electrical power at night and charge more during the day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Utility Bills Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.