Lower Your Energy Bill With These Quick Tips

Today I have a guest post from my friend Sam! Sam Diab is an Essential Services Consultant from Illinois but does business nationwide. Outside of that, he’s a recent college graduate, avid soccer player, and world cultures enthusiast. Above all that, he’s a very frugal millennial and loves to save money!

What does the average US household spend on their energy bills? $200/month? That’s a conservative example. That’s also almost $2,500 a year. What if you learn how to get just 10% back?

There are countless ways to save money on your Electric -and especially Gas- bills this winter. I’m going to share with you the top 5 convenient and rewarding ways to do so.

1.Insulate Your Attic:

The U.S. Department of Energy (USDE) estimates that the attic is where most of your heat escapes to because heat rises by default. Energy Star estimates Gas savings up to 20% by doing this!

Insulation blocks the heat from escaping outside. It’s not only cheap but easy to do as well if you look up DIY videos online. If anything, have your plumber do it!

2. Install A Programmable Thermostat

Can we agree we’re all busy? Sometimes we’re home or away and in between, we get caught up with life. It helps a lot knowing you can control your thermostat when you’re away from home.

The USDE also estimates saving 10% with a programmable thermostat. If you have one, use it! If you don’t, they’re literally as low as $40 on Amazon.

3. Less Water!

Here’s a fun fact: Did you know that only half the Energy costs go to Air Heating/Cooling? The other half goes to heating water. With that said, here’s a few golden nuggets:

1. Shorten your shower minutes. This can reduce your water heating costs by 33 percent.
2. Cover your pot to boil water faster
3. IF you’re going to use a dishwasher, pack it! You’re already using a good amount of water. If you only have a few, wash them manually!

Contact Your Utility Company

Some local utilities like our Nicor Gas and ComEd in Illinois have budget saving programs to help save money on our bills. CEDA is an example here.

A guy from our electric utility knocked on my door this summer asking if I was interested in saving $5/month this summer. The catch was just to install an information-collecting device on our furnace for their market research. I said why not!

Shop For Supplier Companies

Have you heard of Energy deregulation? If not, it basically means that you have the right to purchase your Energy from other suppliers rather than your local utility (that still delivers).

This all started in the beginning of the 21^st century so now you have all sorts of energy suppliers like Xoom (my partner company), Ambit, Stream, and others that can possibly offer you lower rates on your Gas and Electricity bills! Contact one of their reps over the phone or in person when you see them.

That’s it from my end! I hope you all got some good value from this info as I laid out some clear action steps to lower your bills.

And If you want to see how you can:

1. Save money on your Energy & other utilities (e.g. TV, Internet, Cell, etc) and
2. Contribute to Project Feeding Kids North America at the same time

Feel free to browse through my online storefront HERE OR take 5 minutes to fill out a brief survey HERE of your house bills and I will get back to you within 24-48 hours with the results!