Guide on How to Cut Electric Bill by 75 Percent

With ever-increasing per-kWh rates, knowing how to cut electric bills by 75 percent is unequivocally essential. The best way is to change your electricity usage patterns, like upgrading your appliances, turning them off when unused, regularly cleaning and maintaining appliances, and conducting a home energy habit.

One of the best ways, however, is to invest in Jackery Solar Generators. With their high battery capacity and portable design, they are suitable for powering most household appliances. This, in turn, reduces your reliance on the electric grid and your high electric bills.  

Key Takeaways

• Supply charges, delivery charges, and taxes are the primary components of an electric bill.
• Cooling (ACs, refrigerators) and heating (heaters, dryers) consume the most electricity in a home.
• Investing in energy-star appliances and changing electricity usage are the best ways to reduce your bills.
• Changing energy sources to solar is the best way to save on bills.

Understanding Your Electric Bill

When the question is, how can I cut my electric bill, the first step is understanding what you’re paying for. Looking at your electric bill, you’ll find it broken down into multiple home energy charges, which vary with utilities but are typically divided into three parts: supply, delivery, and taxes.

Supply Charges: They comprise the major part of an electric bill and include the cost to pay for the total energy used within a respective period.

Delivery Charges: Delivery is the cost of getting the energy to you, and it includes the infrastructure and maintenance costs.

Taxes: It covers any taxes enforced by the local, state, or federal government against your energy usage.

By understanding the three major components, you can identify the areas to work on. For example, delivery cost and taxes aren’t in your control, but so is the supply cost. You can adjust your energy usage pattern to cut down your bills or look for any available energy efficiency incentives from your government or utilities.  

Other than that, a few other components of your electric bill include:

• Meter Number: The meter number on your bill is a unique number that identifies it as a meter of the specific addresses.
• Meter Readings: Your electricity meter records total electricity consumption in units (kWh or kilowatt-hour) and indicates the number of units you consume during the billing period.
• Billing Period: You pay for electricity consumed for a specific duration, typically around a month.
• Monthly Consumption: The monthly consumption pertains to the amount of energy used in the billing month and is a primary factor in determining your electric bills.
• Kilowatt-Hour (kWh): It’s standard to measure energy consumption, and a thorough understanding of it is crucial to gauge your electric bills accurately.
• Tariff Structure: Electric tariffs include everything: fixed charges, energy charges, surcharges, and taxes. A tariff structure on your bill outlines the rates you pay for respective consumption levels.

What Appliances Use The Most Electricity in A House?

A decade or two back, people used hand fans to get a cool breeze and get relief from the heat in summer, and even did laundry by hand and hung it to dry. It saves hundreds of watt-hours of electricity, which your air conditioners, dryers, washing machines, ceiling fans, and others might consume, and ultimately reflects on your electric bills.

Let’s understand how these appliances hike your electricity usage:

Air Conditioner: An Air Conditioner (AC) is a common appliance that contributes to most of your monthly bills. This is primarily because they use a large amount of electricity to cool your home, which can go as high as 1450 kWh a month, or 40% of the average electric consumption. The size and efficiency of these appliances dictate their usage, and in some cases, the numbers can get even higher.

Electric Furnace: Alongside air conditioners, furnaces typically use up to 10,000-50,000 watts of electricity. An electric furnace running around 9 hours a day consumes up to 26 kWh of electricity, adding up to 182 kWh of electricity in a week and up to 5,500 kWh a month, almost two times that of an air conditioner. Considering the average electric rate in the US at 16.43 cents per kWh, an electric furnace adds up to $90.36 per month to your electric bill.

Dryer: Dryers are appliances that contribute to a large portion of your overall monthly energy consumption. Although the numbers might vary with models and the load you put in at a time, they can go up to 769 kWh, which is fairly high. The good news is that many Energy Star-rated dryer models are now available on the market, which means they consume less energy than traditional ones. This is great news for those who want to cut power bills considerably.   

Refrigerators: Refrigerators also need considerable energy to run constantly to keep the food inside cool and fresh. Although similar to others, the consumption differs from model to model, but typically, it can go up to 1-2kWh, costing about $150 per year. However, you can always use energy-star-rated refrigerators that consume up to 30% less electricity.

Space Heater: Space heaters can ramp up your electric bills by double and even triple if you aren’t careful. Despite their small size, they consume a lot, with up to 1.5kWh in an hour, and considering the average electric rate in the US, you pay around 26 cents in that time. What you can do is use them not as your primary heat source but rather in tandem with your heating system.

Lights: Although small, lights can use a lot of electricity in your home, especially if you go away and keep them on for a long time. Although LEDs account for much less than traditional lights, they might add up to the overall amount at the end of the month. So make sure to turn them on when they’re needed and off when you leave the area.

Here’s a table that showcases their wattage and electricity needed:

Although these are the major culprits, other appliances like microwaves, dishwashers, electric ovens, electric stovetops, water heaters, and others contribute more or less towards electric consumption and eventually add up to your electric bills. So, be smart when running these appliances.   

How to Cut Electric Bill by 75%?

Now that you understand your electric bill and the appliances that are adding up the numbers on it, you’ll need a strategy to cut electric bills by 75 percent. In this way, you not only save your bank from emptying out but also reduce your home’s carbon emissions and potentially help the environment. Now let’s explore some strategies you can employ:

Conduct a Home Energy Audit

To start things, conduct an energy audit of your home to get a clear image of the overall energy use. Many utilities offer free audits to their customers, so take advantage of that and determine how much electricity is spent, where it needs improvement, and what steps you must take to achieve your ultimate goal of cutting down the electric bill. In many cases, a proper home audit helps reduce the bill by hundreds of dollars annually.

Use Energy Efficient Appliances

Upgrading your home appliances to newly launched Energy Star-rated ones can help you reach your monthly objective. These appliances are around 15% more efficient than the traditional ones, consume less electricity, and lower down your monthly bill.

Turn Off Unused Appliances

Another excellent way to cut down your electric consumption is turning off your appliances like computers, lights, ACs, and others. For example, an average desktop and a laptop drain up to 200W and 100W of electricity, depending on the model. And even in standby mode, they continue to draw up to 170W and 85W of electricity per hour. If you completely turn off your units, they will stop consuming electricity entirely and see a decrease in your electric bill.  

Regularly Clean and Maintain Appliances

Even your 5-star-rated appliance will be less energy efficient than a 1-star one if it isn’t maintained properly. That’s because as appliances get old, dust, debris, and dirt start accumulating in them, potentially hampering their functioning and resulting in performance issues. In the end, these appliances are not very energy efficient. So, it’s essential that you periodically clean your appliances to keep curbing the electricity requirement.

Keep your Freezer Full

As you know, refrigerators are one of the biggest culprits behind your high electric bills every month, and you can’t turn them off to keep your food fresh. But what you can do is keep the freezer and fridge full. Food here acts as insulation and lessens the time a refrigerator has to run to keep it cool.

Dry Your Clothes Outside

Rather than using a dryer, you can set up a clothesline in your backyard and let Mother Nature act as one. If there’s not much empty space there, you can hang your clothes to dry on a drying rack or a shower rod. This alone might cut down your electric bill by almost 10-15%.

Shield Your House From the Sun

An alternative way to keep your house cool and avoid air conditioners as much as possible is to close the blinds and curtains in the area most exposed to the sun. To even reduce the AC runtime, install tinted window film.

Take Advantage of Off-Peak Rates

If you use a time-of-use plan correctly, you can save a chunk on your electric bill. Ask your local provider if they have such a plan, and try to heat water, run the dishwasher, wash laundry, and run air conditioners during off-peak hours when rates are the lowest. This is an ideal way to save money if you work from home.

Use Smart Strips

Replace your surge protectors with smart strip surge protectors that automatically turn off appliances when not in use. Some appliances, such as desktops and laptops, continue to consume energy even when in standby mode, and a smart strip removes that to save you money on electric bills.

Annual HVAC maintenance

Another tip to reduce your average bill is to maintain your HVAC system annually. Even an inspection saves you up to 20% on your bills, and most technicians recommend expert energy-saving tips to boost its overall efficiency.