2024 is wrapping up, and with the New Year just around the corner, people everywhere are thinking about resolutions to adopt in 2025. Based on a survey completed by the Certified Financial Planner (CFB) Board, the top New Year’s resolution for Americans is saving more money. At NES, we want our customers to make the necessary changes to help them save more on their power bills in the new year. Below are some helpful tips on ways to save on your power bill by saving more energy around the home:
Daily
- Turn down the temperature of your water heater to the warm setting (120°F).
- Check if your water heater has an insulating blanket. An insulating blanket will pay for itself in one year or less!
- Make sure your furnace or heat pump receives professional maintenance each year.
- Survey your incandescent lights for opportunities to replace them with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lights last longer, are more energy-efficient and offer a better light quality than incandescent lights.
- Turn off the lights in unoccupied rooms or consider installing timers, photo cells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.
- Turn off your computer monitor when not in use for more than 20 minutes and turn off both the CPU and monitor if you’re not going to use your computer for more than two hours.
- Unplug equipment that drains energy when not in use (i.e., cell phone chargers, fans, coffeemakers, desktop printers, radios, etc.).
- Install a programmable thermostat that can be adjusted to temperatures according to your schedule.
- During winter, open curtains on your south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home, and close them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.
- Clean or replace filters in your furnace, air conditioner, and heat pump.
Monthly
- Insulate your hot water pipes to prevent heat loss.
- Insulate heating ducts in unheated areas, such as attics and crawlspaces. Keeping ducts in good repair can prevent heat loss of up to 60% at the registers.
- Seal up air leaks in your house—the ones that whistle on windy days, or feel drafty.
- Assess your heating and cooling systems. Determine if replacements are justified, or whether you should retrofit them to work more efficiently to provide the same comfort (or better) for less energy.
- Schedule an energy audit with NES for more expert advice on your home as a whole. Learn more about home energy audits here.
Annually
- Make sure your home is properly insulated.
- Replace aging, inefficient appliances. Even if the appliance has a few useful years left, replacing it with a top-efficiency model is generally a good investment.
- Upgrade leaky windows. The typical home loses more than 25% of its heat through windows.
- Upgrade your computer and monitor. Consider replacing your desktop computer with a notebook computer and docking station, and your cathode ray tube monitor with a liquid crystal display (LCD) or LED monitor.
For more on ways you can save energy, click here.
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