Rising energy costs are a troubling fact of life the world over. As homeowners we feel it more than most with fuel costs rising incessantly. Learning how to reduce energy bills to save money and become more sustainable is becoming essential. Here are some top tips on how to start.

Effective ideas on how to reduce energy bills to save money

Just keeping the lights on in your household isn’t cheap. If you then add heating/cooling systems, the hot water heater, kitchen appliances your energy bills add up. Fortunately, by simply tweaking your energy usage routine can lower your spend up to 25%. Just be smart about it. Yet without even thinking of how you use energy you can easily become the biggest electricity spenders. Read on to learn some easy and effective ways to lower those bills.  

Solar panels

Having solar panels installed on your roof will not only save you money but are also great for the environment. After the initial cost of purchase and installation, they will work practically free for you. they produce energy using the Sun as their source. Investing in and using solar panels is definitely a good idea and sustainable! The panels are connected to all your electrical wiring, and whenever they start producing energy, your house will use that power instead of power from the utility company.  Using solar power is great way to reduce energy bills and to start saving money.

Heating and cooling 

Usually, the heating and cooling systems in your house are the biggest electricity spenders, but you shouldn’t compromise by turning them down, having a chilly home isn’t the solution you want. There’s a number of ways you can reduce the cost while maintaining a great temperature in your home. 

The first thing you should do is check the seals on your windows, doors, and appliances (the fridge or freezer). You might be using more energy than you should because a badly installed window is letting out the heat, or a freezer having to work excessively to maintain its temperature because the door isn’t sealed perfectly. 

What about when you’re away from home?

You should also think about setting the thermostat to a different temperature when you’re away from home. this can be a great way to reduce energy bills and save money. If you’re at work for eight hours, why should the systems work the whole time? The best way to regulate this is by getting a programmable thermostat. Then set a schedule for it and monitor the timer for your own time in the home. You can lower the cost of heating/cooling by up to 10% by doing this. 

Find housesitters

When you are leaving your home to go on holiday, resist the urge to leave all the lights on while you are away. This can be very expensive and waste energy especially if you are on holiday for several weeks at a time. Naturally, you will be concerned about the security of your home and property. A better way to manage the security of your home and the energy bills is to find housesitters. Join a housesitting website to find live in housesitters who will guard your home.

Free sitters – Yes, free housesitters!

If you choose the right sitters from a professionally run website you can also find free housesitters. These sitters will move into your home as live in house and petsitters. So they can also offer petsitting to look after any resident pets. They will pay their own way and care for your home and pets as if they were their own. The people who choose to do this are often retired or semi retired folk who like to travel and have active holidays. They exchange their time and services for free accommodation. It’s a fair exchange. And in this way you can find free housesitters. Plus they offer added advantages…

Lighting and appliances

More than 10% of your energy bill is accounted for by keeping the lights and appliances on. There are, of course, things you can do to save up some of that energy and money. For example, switching out all your lightbulbs with energy-efficient LED bulbs can relieve your headache, because they spend significantly less energy than the regular ones. Installing dimmers for these lights will reduce the bills even further, while also giving you more control over the lighting. You can set the atmosphere for yourself by dimming some of those lights and making them more comfortable to look at. 

Most of the electronics in your house never actually turn off. They just go into standby mode. This continues to use power (only a small portion of power yet it is worth noting). Installing smart power strips and plugging these electronics into them will reduce energy spending. It works because the power strip cuts off the power when the devices are not in use. 

Laundry and dishwashing 

You can really save up some cash if you use cleaning appliances on a regular basis. It really can be an instant way to reduce energy bills right way. You should use your dishwasher during the night, and only turn it on once it’s packed with dishes. Did you know that using the dishwasher is more energy-efficient than handwashing? Handwashing actually uses almost 10 times more water than the washer!

As with dishwashing, do your laundry at night, after peak energy spending hours. This will save you energy and money. Laundry machines have been engineered, so you don’t have to use lots of hot water to ensure clothes are perfectly clean. Using cold water when washing is just as effective. And it can reduce your energy bills significantly. There are great specialized cold-water detergents if you’re worried that cold water will not wash your clothes as well as hot water. 

A final word on how to reduce energy bills to save money

Being energy-efficient is not only good for your wallet but the environment, too. Knowing how to reduce energy bills to save money is extremely timely considering rising fuel costs. We spend so much electricity these days, and it’s mostly produced by using non-renewable energy sources. It’s a matter of time before we will all have to be more aware of the energy we are using. Use these tips and see how much money you’ll save; you may save up enough for a great vacation at the end of the year just by being energy-smart. There are even more ways to reduce those energy bills, so keep checking. Continue your research online.

FURTHER READING ON MAINTAINING PROPERTY AND SAVING MONEY

At Housesitmatch.com we like to offer useful and practical articles on topics for our readers. In this selection we offer you a number of suitable pieces from our own blog on renovating,  maintaining a home and saving money.

Maintaining a sustainable lifestyle at home

Cut energy bills – Tips for homeowners

Ideas to help you establish a new home quickly

Housesitters keep pets safe at home and save money

What a housesitter does – Top 10 responsibilities