How to Reduce Utility Bills

One of the most common topics with the thousands of residents and tenants we serve is how to reduce utility bills. Since helping our residents and tenants save money and preserve resources is such an important subject for us, we decided to put together our best recommendations into one big list of Money Saving Tips. Apartment, condo mobile home park residents and even commercial tenants who commit to the following these ideas and suggestions can enjoy lower electric and water bills.

How to Reduce Utility Bills with Proper Care and Efficient Use of Major Appliances

Your Refrigerator / Freezer: Believe it or not, your refrigerator / freezer may be responsible for up to 25% of your electric bill! We recommend these steps:

• Clean the protective grill at the bottom front of your refrigerator / freezer and vacuum the dust off of the cooling coils. This will help your fridge operate more efficiently. If your fridge is an older model, the coils may be on the back.
• Inspect the rubber seal around the doors. These can crack with age and fail to seal the doors closed. This causes your fridge to work harder to maintain cool and freezing temperatures.
• Here’s how to reduce utility bills with your refrigerator / freezer. It’s common for people who have their own place to only use a small portion of their refrigerator and we all visit the fridge numerous time through the day. If your fridge it is not packed full, fill up the empty space with plastic gallon jugs of water or 2 liter bottles of water. The goal here is to fill the empty areas with water. Here’s why – every time you open your refrigerator or freezer, you let a lot of cold or freezing air out and room temperature air in. If you fill all of the empty cavities of space you are not using with water, it does not flow out when you open the door and blocks room temperature air from flowing into that space. The cold or frozen water jugs will also help the fridge and freezer recover to the temperature it is set to faster. This tip is especially valuable if you are in and out of your fridge and freezer often, (which is usually the case).

Your Electric Stove and Water Heater: Electric Stoves and Water Heaters also use a lot of energy because they heat with heating elements. Heating elements are made to resist electric current, which is why they get red hot. The downside is that it takes a lot of energy to heat up. Here are some ideas to reduce the energy these appliances use:

• These days there are a number of small counter top cooking appliances such as the Instapot, Ninja and many others that actually cook food faster and healthier than a conventional electric oven. Cooking with these types of appliances or your microwave requires much less energy.
• If you prefer to use your stove, always use the lids of your pots and pans when cooking. This cuts down on cooking time.
• You can adjust the temperature dial on your water heater.  Turning this temperature dial down will reduce your hot water temperature and the amount of electricity your water heater uses to maintain unnecessarily hot water.

Your Washer and Dryer: Again, hot water, and electric heating elements eat up electricity:

• Yes, we’ve all needed that one shirt, pair of pants or dress washed and dried quickly, but it’s so wasteful. Mainly due to the water use of the washer, especially if you use hot water. If you have a traditional top load washing machine, it can use as little as 60, yes SIXTY gallons, to as much as 120, ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY gallons for a complete cycle. Do you really want to use, (and pay for) that much water to wash one or two articles of clothing?
• Now the dryer… The average traditional dryer uses 3.3 Kilowatt hours. Lets use an average of 11 Cents per Kilowatt hour. The average load takes 45 minutes to dry. So .36 Cents to dry those one or two items. Unfortunately 1 or 2 clothing articles will not dry much faster than a full load of clothes.
• Another way to save with your washer is by always washing clothes in cold water with cold water detergent.
• Try to wash and dry full loads to get the maximum efficiency from your washer and dryer and keep your dryer lint filter clean to get the most laundry washed and dried for your money.

Save More Money with These Easy Adjustments

• Most of us have multiple chargers for our phones, Laptops, and all the other rechargeable devices in our lives. If you are not charging, unplug the charger. Almost all chargers use electricity even when you are not charging with them.
• Use power strips with switches for your entertainment center and for your computer area. Your entertainment center probably has a TV, a cable modem or box and a DVD player at least. You may also have a stereo or surround sound system or other electronics.  And your computer area most likely includes your PC, monitor(s), and a printer if not additional devices. These electronics all use power even when they are off. Plugging them all into one power strip allows you to completely disconnect them, and a power strip / surge protector can provide additional protection for your electronics and computer equipment.
• Here’s how to reduce your utility bills Adjust your PC and monitors to go into power save mode after 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes or never.
• Get rid of your incandescent light bulbs! Energy Star says, if you replace the bulbs in the five most used light fixtures in your apartment or condominium, you will save more than $65.00 a year. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less energy and last 6 to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Imagine how much you could save if you only used compact fluorescent light bulbs for all your lighting.
• Open drapes and blinds can allow a lot of heat into your apartment or condominium on a hot day. BUT, on cold days, open drapes and blinds can let the sunshine in and help heat your spaces. Use your drapes and blinds to keep your spaces cool in the summer and help heat your spaces in the winter.
• Adjust your thermostat just two degrees warmer in the summer and take advantage of the breeze your ceiling fan can provide at a much lower cost than a central air conditioning. Also adjust your thermostat just two degrees cooler in the winter and wear the clothing you need to be comfortable.
• If you have central heating and cooling, it has what is called a “Return Vent.” This is usually a large square vent in a central area of your apartment or condominium near the inside unit. Sometimes it is in a wall in the living room or an open area where a piece of furniture could be place in front of it. Take care not to block this return with furniture. It will dramatically reduce the cooling and heating capabilities of your central heating and cooling system.
• For a few dollars you can purchase high efficiency faucet aerators and replace the simple screen filters on your kitchen and bathroom faucets. This will save water and still allow the faucet to produce a nice even flow of water at a lower rate than a screen.
• If you install a low-flow shower head, you can take a ten minute shower and use less water than a full bath.
• Here’s how to reduce your utility bills with the toilet, yes the toilet. Older toilets have large tanks that use a lot more water per flush, usually around 5 gallons. Today’s efficient toilets and smaller tanks use much less water; only 1.6 gallons of water per flush, by law. If you have an older toilet, fill 1 or 2 plastic soda bottles with rocks and screw the lid on tight. Place them in the toilet tank to displace and reduce the amount of water the tank holds. This will reduce the amount of water your toilet will use every time it is flushed and requires no maintenance!

These tips, tricks and hacks on how to reduce your utility bills work and we are confident that once you take a few minutes time to implement and practice these tips you will see a reduction in your electric and water bills!