From Guest Blogger Diana Smith: Green Tips For Lowering Your Electric Bill

We all know that one of the major sources of expenditure for every homeowner out there is electricity bill. Still, many people believe that lowering their electricity bill takes a lot of money and effort. They couldn’t be more wrong since there are plenty of simple ways to do this. We’ve come up with 5 of these that have proven to do the trick for many Australians and might be exactly what your household budget needs.

Perform a nightly energy sweep

A lot of Australian homeowners tend to leave lights, fans or TV on all night while they’re asleep. If this is the case with you, you might want to think about ditching this habit in order to reduce your electric bill. We recommend doing a nightly energy sweep through the entire house and turning off any appliances you or another household member left on. Having your PC turned on for the entire night really is convenient since it gives it enough time to do an update or perform an anti-virus scan, but bear in mind that it will increase your electricity bill quite a lot.

Measure your laundry loads

Ideally, you’ll want every load of laundry to have as many articles of clothing as your washer can fit. That way, you’ll be using less time and energy on washing your clothes. Still, you need to bear in mind that all the clothes you put into your washer need to fit into your dried as well. It’s very important that you leave about 25% of the dried unfilled so that the hot air can do its job. Fail to do this, and you might have to run your dryer twice which is really inefficient. This may not seem like a lot but if you tend to overstuff your washer every time you wash your clothes, you’re wasting a lot of energy.

Start using LED lights

A lot of Australian homeowners enjoy using LED lights for various reasons. Not only that these last longer than standard incandescent bulbs but they also use less energy than these. They also produce little to no heat, which can be pretty helpful during summer. So, if you want to reduce your energy bill, switching to LED bulbs makes a lot of sense. Due to the popularity of LED bulbs, you can now find these in almost every shape and color, which means that there’s no reason to stick with incandescent bulbs.

Review your appliances

It may seem like replacing your old appliances is expensive but the truth is, sometimes you’ll be saving a lot of money if you decide to replace them. Broken appliances tend to use much more energy than they’re supposed to and this will reflect on your energy bill. Moreover, some new appliances have been specifically made to use less energy and switching to them can help you save a lot of money. We also recommend having your electrical system inspected before it’s time to call a local emergency services. If your home is based in NSW, having a number of a good 24 hour electrician from Sydney just in case is always a good idea.

Use your surroundings

Strategically placing trees around your home can also do wonders for your electricity bill. During the summer, large trees around the house are going to provide shade and you’ll have to use less energy in order to keep your home cool. During the winter, trees can also serve as windbreakers and reduce your heating costs quite a lot. What’s so great about this is that planting trees around your home is pretty cheap and something you can do yourself. To maximize the impact, you’ll want to plant the trees on the south and west sides of your house.

These 5 simple things are guaranteed to help you reduce your electricity bill. Not only this, but they’ll lower your impact on the environment which is something we all have to start thinking about.