When you’re trying to figure out how to renovate a kitchen on a budget the last thing you need is for your utility bills to be through the roof, taking half of your check each month. Living on a budget is already hard enough, but when you have utility bills that are steadily increasing for no reason, it gets even harder.
While it’s super easy to blame your energy provider for the price hikes they like to throw at you every year, sometimes the spike in your energy bill is simply because something is using a ton of it in your own home. There are many different ways to save energy, especially in the winter months when the heat is used more often, but there are also sometimes where something else is draining the energy in your home. In this article, you’ll find a few of those things.
1. HVAC Unit
Whether it’s the middle of a frigid winter or in the midst of a blistering hot summer if your utility bills are skyrocketing for no apparent reason other than it’s hot or cold outside, you could have HVAC unit issues. If your air filters are dirty or your unit is struggling to keep up with the cold or heat outside, then it could easily be that your unit is either too small or even too old to keep up anymore. If your HVAC unit is over ten years of age, it’s best to talk to a service technician and see if it’s better to replace than to repair it.
2. Outdated Appliances
Often the reason your utility bills are through the roof can be easily traced back to the appliances you have in your home. For example, if your fridge is still from the 1990s, then it’s probably not an energy-efficient model and is struggling to keep up at the same time. Any appliances such as washers, dryers, furnaces, fridges, or even dishwashers will start struggling to keep up after they are over a certain age, resulting in energy bills that are through the roof. Check your appliances and start replacing the ones that are past their expiration date if you want your energy bills to plummet.
3. Vampire Appliances
Look around your home. How many appliances do you see on or still plugged in when they aren’t in use? These appliances will suck the energy right out of your home and your energy bill will pay for it. These are called vampire appliances for a reason. Televisions, gaming consoles, phone chargers, computers, and the like are vampire appliances. You should switch off and unplug them when not in use if you want lower energy bills as a result.
4. Energy Hog Appliances
Appliances such as the dishwasher and washer and dryer combinations love to be fed and they use a ton of electricity. It’s estimated that the average American family does over 400 loads of laundry a year. That’s a whole lot of electricity being used. You can save on your energy bills with these by only running the dishwasher or washing and drying clothes when you have full loads to do.
5. Lighting
While you might not think that turning off the lights in your home or switching to energy-saving light bulbs wouldn’t make all that much of a difference in your utility bills, you would be wrong. Besides, do you really need every light in the house on, when you’re not even in those rooms?
These are just a few of the reasons that your utility bills could be through the roof when you’re doing nothing different. Remember, following the tips above might just cut your electric bill in half. What’s not to love about that?
