Saving on the Monthly Utility Bills A major expense to every homeowner, landlord, or renter across the country is the monthly utility bill. These bills have a tendency to add up quick with charges to an individual’s or family’s electricity, gas, water, and sewage usage for the month.
Family Expenses These costs of living typically cost a family hundreds of dollars a year but luckily they can be diminished by effectively controlling the energy consumption of a home. This means being smarter with how energy in the home is being used and making a conscious effort to minimize energy use at all times. By following a few standard tips and few tips that are, well, perhaps not so standard, a family or an individual can begin to save literally hundreds of dollars every year with lower utility costs. The first step along the path to cheaper monthly expenses for utilities will be to conduct a home energy audit.
Energy Audits A home energy audit is exactly what it sounds like, an audit of the energy use in one’s home. An energy audit can be conducted by an energy audit professional who will come to the home and inspect the energy usage of that home. Make sure to find someone in your area. For example, if you lived in West Jordan, get an energy audit in by a West Jordan company. With this inspection the professional home energy auditor will be able to give advice to the homeowner on how they can improve their energy consumption in the home to maximize energy use and cut power costs. Typically, there will be a few standard ways in which a homeowner can immediately begin to save on their monthly utility bills.
Saving Money The first and best way to start saving money is to strictly regulate the thermostat in the home. Tens if not hundreds of dollars in energy costs are wasted every year due to unnecessary temperature control in the home. While the house is empty, for example, or at night when the residence can get under warm blankets the thermostat should be turned down as to save heating costs. Similarly for temperature control in the summer, the air conditioner should be watched closely for unnecessary use.
Stripping the Doors and Windows Other ways that a homeowner can begin to immediately save on their utility bills is by weather stripping their doors and windows in the home. These areas are typically the most common areas of the home where energy is lost from the structure as heated or cooled air escapes through these portals to the outside. Tightly sealing these problem areas from the leaks that they frequently have will instantly boost the energy efficiency of the home. The above suggestions are fairly common practices by those who save on their utility bills but are seldom used by a large percentage of American homeowners.
Water Usage One less known way to save money on monthly utility bills is geared toward water consumption. Common practices to save money on water usage is to take shorter showers, turn off the faucet while brushing one’s teeth, and getting the most used out of a washing machine by doing larger loads of laundry. But a lesser known water saver is to place a brick or similar object in the tower of the toilets in the home to displace water. Doing so will save money by saving on water at every flush as it will take less water to fill the tower if a water displacement object is present. These and other tips will help to cut costs on the monthly bills and save a homeowner potentially hundreds of dollars every year. Photo Credit: Cayusa, Jenn Durfey, Kevin Dooley