Tips to lower the power bill

This article can also be found here.

As the heat rises during the summer months, your power bill goes up right along with it! If you don't take some basic cost reducing measures, it can cause your bill to be a lot higher than it should be or needs to be. Fortunately, there are summer easy ways that you can lower your power bill during the summer.

One easy method is to keep your blinds and shades closed, especially during the day if nobody is home. If you have the shades open (or the lights on), the sun will come bearing into the room, which will necessitate the use of the air conditioner. Closing the blinds is a very easy way to keep things a little cooler. Also, you should just look around to make sure that all doors and windows are closed where they should be. Again, leaving these things open will just unnecessarily make it warmer in the house, which could tempt you to use the air conditioning more, which will raise that power bill.

If you have access to it, try to use a clothes line instead of the dryer. A dryer will use up a lot of energy and and will produce a lot of heat, both of which will add to your energy bill. Hanging your clothes on a line will help combat that to keep the power bill down. Try to do as little physical activity indoors as possible. Once again, those types of things will cause your body to generate heat, which will make the house warmer, which will cause you to crank up the air conditioning. In the summer, this is the main enemy when you are talking about your power bill and trying to keep it reasonable.

To that end, try to tough it out and use the air conditioning as little as possible. Try to get a ceiling fan, or any type of fan. It won't work as well as air conditioning (especially as the temperatures outside get really hot), but they will keep you moderately comfortable, and if you are serious about lowering that power bill, that should be OK. If you do turn the air conditioning on, leave it at the same temperature. If you jerk it around a lot, it will not be as effective, it will have to run more, and that will increase the power bill. Keep it steady and you will keep the power bill as low as possible.

During the summer months, as it gets hotter and hotter, the tendency is for the power bill to get higher and higher. However, if you just take these simple measures, you can keep your house cool and lower the power bill instead, which makes for a good situation all around. The main thing is to try and use the air conditioner as little as possible, because that is the thing that will cause the power bill to rise most quickly in the summer.