8 Easy Ways to Slash As Much As 20% Off Your Electric Bills at Home

Instead of complaining about the ever-increasing electric bills that you pay monthly and contemplating to buy that new power saver device that you see being advertised on TV, there are some ways that you can do to easily cut down electric consumption by as much as 20%. And these techniques do not require any gadget or too much effort on your part. All you need is to be aware of the situations where you are unintentionally using too much energy, and eliminate them.

Here are some of the sure-fire ways to save power at home:

1. Unplug electronic appliances when not in use. Turning off electronic appliances doesn't really mean that these are no longer consuming electricity. Most appliances nowadays just go to standby mode when you switch them off. And while on standby mode, they are still using electricity. Did you know that leaking electricity consumed by appliances in standby mode can constitute up to 10% of your total electric consumption? By unplugging those appliances and eliminating standby power, you can save as much 10% already.

2. Turn off computer monitors. More often than not, we do not switch off our monitors even after we have shut down our computers. This is another case of leaking electricity or phantom load. Turning off and unplugging monitor and computer is the only way to make sure that they are no longer using power. If you're getting out of the room away for a while, say a few minutes, you can turn off the just monitor, since it'll be illogical to switch off the whole computer unit.

3. Replace all incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). A 13-watt CLF is just as bright as a 30-watt incandescent light. That's a 17-watt difference. For that reason alone, you should use only CLF in your homes.

4. When you're using the air conditioner, set it to a temperature that's enough to cool the room. If you set it too low, it will consume more energy to maintain the temperature. Setting it too high would be like cooling a room that's already cooled.

5. Do the laundry and the ironing once a week. This minimizes the use of washing machine and electric iron. Did you know that an ordinary flat iron can consume 1000-watt of electricity? It's more than what a 20 cu. Ft refrigerator uses. Just imagine how much it can hike up your energy consumption if you're going to iron only a few clothes everyday.

6. Don't put hot foods inside the refrigerator. Bring them to room temperature first. Like with the air conditioner, the refrigerator maintains the temperature inside and it will consume more energy if abrupt changes in the temperature is detected.

7. Keep the water heater to a minimum setting. You do not need to heat the water at a very high temperature for too long.

8. When buying new appliances, look for the energy star rating. They maybe more expensive but you'll have your rebate in forms of savings in your monthly electric bills.