With the forebodding economic climate, and comparatively large price of electric service, many homeowners that didn’t concern themselves with their energy charges are now very serious in saving electricity bill costs. However, it’s not always obvious where to get started first.

Outlining your options

One technique that works great is to categorize your options in terms of potential savings and the relative effort to realize those savings. For example, adding insulation to your attic has large potential savings, but also has a comparatively large possible cost and effort. See the chart below for some example ideas on how to categorize opportunities:

You can start to see a pattern here where you now have a framework to consider your alternatives, and you can now prioritize the steps you’ll do first, and come to a decision when to tackle the higher effort moves. One strategy that works particularly well is the take on the low-effort items, and then use the ensuing monthly savings to help provide for the higher effort or greater cost items.

Some examples of typical “low effort” projects

Closing off drafty doors and windows. Depending on the amount of drafty doors and windows, this can be a comparatively small effort. One trick that experienced homeowners use is to walk the house with a lit stick of incense, and hold it close to the door or window joints that you think could possibly be leaking. On well closed joints, the smoke will move upwards, but close to a draft, the smoke will travel sideways. Then you can restore or change the weatherstripping where you found leaks.  Save electricity bill costs are tough to attach a number, but it’s acknowledged that upgrading older windows can reduce costs from 10-25% each month. So, it’s likely that just fixing drafts would make a apparent variation.

Changing electric companies. Do you happen to live in one of the following States that supports electric competition: New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Texas, Arizona, Washington D.C., Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Michigan? You could possibly have an extremely easy way to save hundreds each year. In those States, various electric companies contend to offer you the lowest rate, and switching providers is as uncomplicated as going to a web page or making a phone call. And, the save electricity bill costs can be considerable. In a recent sample of rates for a particular service area in Texas, the top priced provider was At times 20+ percent higher than the most affordable.

You can see that just those two changes alone could possibly net you $100 or more in financial savings each month…which over time, could Finance a higher cost project, like replacing an older refrigerator or adding insulation to your attic. So, placing your focus on the low-hanging fruit first has a unique benefit!