Utility bills make a huge contribution to your ballooning living expenses with electricity bills being the major culprit. When it comes to electricity consumption, it’s often wastage, losses and using energy-hungry appliances that make the bill so high.

The good news is you can rein in on all of these loopholes to conserve energy and save money on your electricity bills.

The first step to lowering your electricity bills is to conduct a self-energy audit of your home. Assess the appliances you have and the way you use energy in your home. It will surprise how much energy you waster and how much you can save.

Besides switching off lights when you don’t need them, you can save quite a fortune by replacing your incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs which are just as bright but emit less heat and also consume up to 80% less power than your ordinary bulbs. Since they generate little heat, they consequently lower your cooling bills and also last longer further saving you more money.

You should also light bulbs clean from dust so they give the maximum rated illumination. You can save money on your security lights by installing motion sensors which turn them on only when there is movement around your home instead of leaving them on all night.

During the day, take advantage of the natural sunlight to illuminate your house.

Your heating and cooling systems single-handedly consume the most power in your home. This is because they have a rating of about 1200W which is higher than that of most household appliances.

Reducing their running hours of your HVAC systems and improving their efficiency could save you a lot of money with having to sacrifice your comfort.

Turn off the air conditioner and open the windows whenever you can and let the wind ventilate your house. Close all the windows and doors though when you have the air conditioner running so it doesn’t run for long to attain a set temperature. Alternatively, you can use ceiling fans which are less energy thirsty.

Every six months, have a qualified technician from the schools at Best-Hvactraining.Com check your insulation and cooling/heating systems for efficiency.

Up to 85% of the energy consumed by your washing machine goes towards heating the water. You could, therefore, save a lot by doing your laundry with cold water or at lower temperatures.

Schedule your laundry days such that you can wash as many clothes as you can with the least number of washing machine cycles. Air dry your clothes when you can but if you must use a machine drier, don’t overload it since it will use more power and run longer if it’s stuffed.

Use the same principle while ironing your clothes. Iron your clothes in huge batches, starting with those that need less heat to remove creases and progressing to the tough ones as the iron box gets hotter. Switch off your iron box with one or two clothes to go and use the residual heat to finish them up.