Maggie Evans 
In our daily lives, we go about it carefree, especially in the comforts of home. We’ll spend hours in the kitchen cooking and running the dishwasher, make sure all of our electronics are fully charged for use, and run our thermostats at settings that are unnecessary… It’s not until our monthly electric bill comes in that we realize we’ve been using the energy in our homes recklessly and carelessly.
When we come to this realization, it’s then that we start taking measures to remedy this issue. We shouldn’t have to pay extreme amounts for our electric bills nor should we have to suffer in our own homes for fear of spiking the bill. The happy medium between enjoying the comforts of home and lowering our electric bills boils down to being mindful about our energy consumption.
Being mindful about your energy consumption at home doesn’t consist of walking around on eggshells the whole time… It’s simply a habit you must practice getting good at, just like any other thing you want to master.
If your electric bill has gotten out of hand and you want to gain control back over it, consider practicing these mindful habits to conserve the most energy in your home.
Effective Ways to Conserve Energy in Your Home
Turn Off Lights When You’re Not Using Them
When you leave one room, make sure to turn off the lights before entering another room. It’s as simple as that. If you or other people in your household have a problem doing that, consider writing little sticky notes and sticking them by the light switches as friendly reminders to turn the lights off if you know you’re not coming back into that room… This may sound a little extreme but until you’ve developed the habit to do it on your own, this definitely works.
Switch From Incandescent Bulbs to LED Bulbs
With light bulbs, your theory might be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but if you want to conserve more energy in your home, you’re going to want to switch to LED light bulbs, in addition to turning off the lights in rooms that aren’t occupied.
The reason you want to switch to LED bulbs is that according to energy.gov, LED bulbs are up to 80% more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs. Now, with the energy-efficiency these bulbs provide, it’s also important to understand that they’re a little pricier than traditional bulbs… BUT it pays off in the grand scheme of things.
Would you rather pay a little more for LED bulbs and save money on your electric bills or would you rather pay less for traditional bulbs and pay more on your electric bill?
Switch to Solar Electricity
Sometimes the reason your electric bill gets so high is not only because of your energy usage but also because of your electricity provider. A lot of people don’t even know that the traditional electricity they’re using right now isn’t the only resource they have available to them… In fact, most people don’t know that electricity can be produced outside the realm of fossil fuels… This is when solar energy comes to save the day.
At first, people refrained from using solar energy because it meant that they would have to have solar panels installed on their homes and that was just too big of a hassle financially. But today, whether you’re a homeowner or renter, you can enjoy the benefits of solar energy in your home, including lowering your monthly electric bill and helping protect the environment.
If you’re interested in learning more about getting your electricity through solar energy and finding out how it can lower your monthly electric bill, check out https://choosesolar.com.
Set Your Thermostat to Reasonable Settings
It’s easy to simply say “go get a smart thermostat,” but not every home is equipped for a smart thermostat… So what do you do in that instance? You have to learn how to be smart in setting your thermostat, and it’s really a mind over matter battle in your head.
The thing to understand about setting your thermostat is that you have to trick your mind, in a sense. If it’s 80 degrees outside, that doesn’t mean you need to set your thermostat to 65 degrees to cool it off. You could set your thermostat to 76 degrees and your home be cooled off. The whole point is to get your home cooler than it is outside… That same theory applies to the winter months as well; You’re trying to get your home’s inside temp a few degrees warmer than what it is outside.
By training yourself to set your thermostat a little higher or lower than what the temperature is outside, you’ll be saving a considerable amount on your electric bill. Just be sure to set it to a temp that you can stand without it being unbearable for you in your own home.
There are several more different ways to conserve energy in your home but you want to take baby steps in your approach. Practicing these habits may not be easy at first, but the more you’re mindful about doing them, the easier it will become and you’ll start to see significant savings on your electric bill.
