From Guest Blogger Lillian Connors: Rethinking Residential Electricity Use

Conserving electricity in a household has two major benefits: you get to decrease your utility bill, and you get to minimize your carbon footprint, effectively aiding in the preservation of the environment. Sounds like a great deal? That’s because it is.

Fortunately, you needn’t resort to costly home retrofits that would put a significant dent in your budget, as plenty of effective energy-saving solutions can be introduced without busting the bank. Here are some smart ideas for reducing electricity use in the modern household.

Perform an energy audit first

First off, in order to get a grasp of your real energy spending, and to get an idea on how you can minimize it long term, you want to perform a house-wide energy audit, and see just where you can conserve the most electricity, and where the most wasteful areas are. Luckily, your electrician can perform this task easily.

What’s more, it’s important to assess whether or not your house can benefit from a complete rewiring project, which is something that you should definitely consider in case you are renovating or moving into a new home. Rewiring can save you money in the long run, and with the right electrician, it can be an inexpensive project.

Turn off the power strip

Appliances and gadgets consume, or rather waste, energy even when they are turned off. It might seem like a miniscule problem, but combine dozens of plugged in appliances around the house and consider their spending average on an annual level, and you have yourself a pretty wasteful situation.

Fortunately, the solution is simple: just plug everything you use occasionally (like phone chargers) into a power strip, and turn it off when they are not in use. You can also install automatic and motion sensor switches to turn off the lights whenever you’re not in the room.

Switch to energy-efficient lighting

As far as concrete energy efficient changes go, the simplest and extremely cost-effective thing you can do is to actually replace the traditional light bulbs around your home, and install LED lights instead, which will conserve energy over the long term.

Not only do energy efficient lights provide better illumination, but they are also extremely durable, and can cut energy waste by 75%. Certain professionals, as this Sydney-based residential electrician, can perform a thorough inspection, and lay out a plan about the best way to install and care for your new lighting scheme. You would also want your electrician to provide full maintenance services should a fixture give out.

Think Energy Star

Another excellent long-term solution is switching out your old appliances with their contemporary, eco-friendly counterparts. This task might not be cheap per se, but if you introduce it gradually, and replace one appliance at a time over the course of several months, you can plan your expenses and avoid cutting your budget.

When looking for new appliances, you want to opt only for those models that boast an Energy Star rating, depicting the level of eco-friendliness in terms of energy and water consumption. Combine your new appliances with the healthy habit of using them properly and switching them off when you don’t need them, and you will have no problem cutting your electricity bills.

Install a water heater timer

Contrary to popular belief, the water heater does not need to work all day long reheating the water in case someone decides to hop in the shower – heating up the water during the night is enough to meet your needs for the entire day ahead. In order to avoid having to think about switching the water heater on and off at specific times, simply install a timer that will do it for you. On an annual level, this simple solution will not only prolong the lifespan of your heater, but it will also save you money in the process.

Conserving electricity shouldn’t be an option in the modern world, but rather it should be the duty of every homeowner to try to minimize their household’s carbon footprint, aid environmental preservation, and save a couple of hundred pounds as well. Consider these ideas to achieve this goal seamlessly and efficiently.