20 Tips and Tricks to Lower Your Energy Bill During Winter

Make sure appliances are really off

Many people don’t realize it, but just turning various appliances and electronic items “off” doesn’t always stop them from drawing energy – that you keep paying for. Thus, if you can really turn off things that you’re not using, you can save power – and money. How much? Well, the Department of Energy has estimated that electronic or electric items plugged in 24 hours per day are responsible for between about 5% and 10% of the typical electric bill, and that it costs the typical household about $100 per year. That’s $1,000 over a decade from things that you thought you’d turned off!

A good solution: Buy a few power strips or surge suppressors and plug into them items such as televisions, computers, printers, DVD players, modems, cable boxes, and so on. Then you can easily turn a bunch of items on and off with the power strip’s on/off switch.