While some of the charges on your utility bill do not depend on your usage, there are areas you can focus on to decrease your cost: energy consumption and energy efficiency. Small changes to your utilities usage can add up to big savings on your monthly bills.
- Conduct an energy audit for your home. An audit can help you determine how much energy your property uses, where it is losing energy, and how to prevent it. You can also contact your distribution company, which tracks your utility meter's historical and real-time data. They can provide you with a record of your energy consumption. By reviewing this record, you can easily see times when your consumption increased or decreased, and identify what caused these changes.
- Replace aging equipment with energy-efficient products. A faulty thermostat, a dirty furnace filter, a motor that needs a tune-up, or a refrigerator with a poor door seal are a few simple things that can significantly increase your usage.
Seasonal efficiency
Colder months
- Use the sun’s energy. In winter, save energy by opening your shades in the morning on the sunny side of your house and closing them late in the day.
- Use an automatic car timer to save energy and money. Even on the coldest nights a block heater only needs to be turned on 3 hours before starting your car.
- To reduce your winter heating bills, close doors and heating vents in unused rooms, closets, or bays. Be sure the temperature in those areas remains warm enough to prevent any plumbing in the walls from freezing.
Warmer months
- Reduce heat in the kitchen. Avoid using the oven in summer – try salads, smoothies or barbecue. You'll reduce the heat in your home and save on your home cooling costs.
- Not home? Turn off the air conditioner. Turn off that old window unit air conditioner for five hours a day while you're away.
- Be strategic with window coverings. Promote airflow through your home and block the scorching sun in summer.
- When you go on vacation, turn your natural gas water heater to vacation mode.
- Hang dry your laundry. If you do eight loads of laundry a week and use your clothesline for 50% of those clothes, you could save up to $52* a year.
Electricity efficiency
- Use LED bulbs and fixtures in your home. They use up to 80% less electricity than incandescent lighting.
- Use dimmers, timers and motion sensors to control your lights.
- Turn off unnecessary lights. Two 100-watt incandescent bulbs switched off an extra two hours per day could save you $12* over a year.
- Use natural light whenever possible. Turning off one LED 60-watt bulb for four hours a day is a $7* saving over a year.
- Use task lighting. Turn off ceiling lights and use table lamps, track lighting and under-counter lights in work and hobby areas as well as in kitchens.
- Unplug unused electronics. Standby power can account for 10% of an average household's annual electricity use.
- Recycle or donate that old TV. Recycle or donate your old TV. Even if you're just using it an hour a day, that 60-inch LCD set is costing you $6* a year.
- Skip the heat-dry setting for the dishwasher. That heat-dry setting is energy. De-select it to reduce your monthly power bill.
- Use the microwave, crock pot or toaster oven. A microwave takes 15 minutes to do the same job as 1 hour in an oven.
- Use the smallest appliance possible to do the job. Microwaves or toaster ovens are some of the most energy efficient cooking appliances. A microwave takes 15 minutes to do the same job as 1 hour in an oven.
- Use smart power bars. Unlike regular power bars, smart power bars reduce or eliminate standby power. With a smart bar, you plug the primary device, such as a TV or computer, into the master socket. When the primary device is turned off, the smart power bar cuts power to all associated devices that are plugged into the other sockets, such as gaming consoles and printers. Turn off the primary device and all other devices get turned off automatically.
- If you’re considering a stand-alone freezer, chest (top-loading) freezers are 30% more efficient than upright (front-loading) freezers.
- Wash laundry in cold water. Switching from hot to cold water will make a significant difference to the amount on your power bill.
- Dry full loads of laundry. Aim for dryer that's about three-quarters full. It'll mean fewer loads over time, and help your dryer work more efficiently.
- Be efficient with refrigeration. Maintain clean, air-tight refrigerator door seals to keep the cold air in and warm air out.
- Unplug battery chargers once the device is fully charged or when the charger is not in use. A battery charger, such as a cellphone charger, may draw electricity even when the device it’s charging is removed. Up to 50% of the electricity drawn by a charger is wasted as heat.
Heating and cooling efficiency
- Use a smart thermostat. It can be controlled remotely to set and adjust the climate of your home. It can also learn from your schedule and sense when you’re home and adjust the temperature accordingly.
- Install exhaust fan timers for proper ventilation and save energy without over-ventilating your home.
- Manage your thermostat. If you have electric heat, lower your thermostat by two degrees to save 5% on your heating bill. Lowering it five degrees could save 10%.
- Find and seal air leaks. Install weatherstripping, caulking, and gaskets around doors, windows and electrical outlets to reduce the warm air leakage and save energy.
- Schedule regular maintenance for your heating and cooling equipment. They will last longer and run more efficiently. Don’t forget to change the furnace air filter every 3 months.
Water efficiency
- Take shorter showers. If two people in your home cut their shower time by a minute each, you could save $30 over a year.
- Turn water off when shaving, washing hands, or brushing teeth.
- Fix that leaky toilet or faucet as soon as possible. A continuously running toilet can waste up to 700 liters of water per day and make your water bill very high.
* FortisAlberta Electricity Calculator https://www.fortisalberta.com/electricity-calculator