One Cent At A Time

A Personal finance blog for saving money and earning more and thus having a better life

Help for Paying Your Utility Bills

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This guest post is geared for my Australian readers. Enjoy the post!

The below services are specific to Australian households but most developed countries have similar financial assistance through non-profits and government programs. Below is a good list to see what types of programs exist. The tips provided can be used anywhere.

If you are having trouble paying your utility bills each month, it may help to know that you are not alone. Many families across the country are dealing with the same issues, but there is help available. Not only are there several great thing you can do today to reduce your monthly fees, but there is governmental help available to help you if you have fallen behind on your bills. Below is a look some great tips and ideas for conserving water and energy, and where you can turn for help.

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Few Cost Effective Ways for Cooling your Home

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Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. If you’re a northerner, you might be welcoming the heat since it’s been so cold for the last few months. But, when the weather warms up, guess what also spikes? You got it – your electric bill because of your air conditioning unit.

Beat the heat with fan

We are beating the heat with fan

I was born and brought up in India where we grew up without AC. AC was luxury for us. Naturally summer months were not pleasant at all. Perhaps readers from Arizona, Texas or Nevada can understand how it feels like to be without AC at 110 F temperature. In India, that heat was not just a passing wave but, it was a way of life, it still is.

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Save Money by Saving Energy

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The image below shows our monthly energy bill. We do not have a separate gas connection for heating needs. Our bills are abnormally high during the summer months. We finally nailed it to the old air conditioning system. Our landlord will soon replace the AC system, before the summer really kicks in here in Florida. So far, we have been saving summer energy bills by few simple methods. We consume 40% less energy than the national household average of $2024 per year, a little solace! Still we feel we can save more.

Electricity Billing

One of the best ways to save money and build your savings account is to work hard at reducing your electric bill. Think about it: the lower your power bill (and other utility bills), the more money you have in your pocket that you can either save or use for other things you need. Here are some practical and important ways to save power while substantially increasing your savings.

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Ways to Reduce Cost of Lighting

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Ninety percent of the energy used by an incandescent bulb is wasted, while only 10 percent is converted into light according to EnergySavers.gov.

Light bulb

The new age light bulbs save energy by turning much more electricity into light. The engineering behind the manufacturing make it possible. The Natural Resource Defense Council says by 2020 the law will reduce energy costs by $100 to $200 per household each year. That is equivalent to shutting down 20+ power plants across the world.

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15 Ways to Reduce summer Energy Consumption

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With the heat of the summer months, you want to reduce as much heat as possible and save energy at the same time. It is natural that you will spend less energy over the summer months than the winter months; since you need less energy to keep heat in. however, you should be careful that you are not using too much energy to reduce the heat in your home over the summer.
Specially in hotter states, our energy bill in summer cost us more than that in the winter.  Energy conservation help us in maintaining cleaner environment.
Some of the practices that will reduce summer energy spending are as follows:
  1. Use fans with your air conditioner, at is helps to circulate the cool air from your air conditioner.
  2. Use ceiling fans to improve the air circulation in your home, so that you can feel some breeze in the heat of the summer months. You can opt for the use of a house fan so that your whole home is ventilated in the heat of the summer. This fan can be mounted in the attic and will be perfect when the windows to the home are open.
  3. If you can, get an oscillating fan as they will turn from side to side as opposed to blowing in one direction.  For the maintenance  of  the fan, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions for  the care and maintenance of the fan to ensure that the operating costs are controlled
  4. Use a washer which allows you to control the level of the water needed to wash the clothes. For this, you can save a lot of water and energy when you need to wash some few clothes. Also, it will be a good idea if you just wash clothes when you are sure you will be having a full load. For example, wash the clothes once a week rather than once every three days. Then you will be washing when you have a full load.
  5. Do not use hot water unless you really need it, most clothes can be washed by the dryer with warm water rather than hot water.
  6. Rinse in cold water; unlike what you may think this has no effect on the quality of your clothes. If you are using hot water, your water heater should be close to the washer to reduce the distance it will travel to reach the washer. This will prevent it from losing heat.
  7. You can save a lot of energy in the summer by drying your clothes in the sun rather htan using the dryer. Most clothes can be hanged on the line without any negative effect on them. You can also dry others like acrylic sweaters on the ground.
  8. Ensure that they are not over-dried-whether you are drying them outside or you are dying them using the dryer-this will cause you to use more water on them every time you wash them and this will mean more energy.
  9. Use energy efficient water heaters that will save you energy over the summer. With the heat of the summer, you can reduce your hot water needs; for example you can have hot water showers only in the evening or in the night.
  10. When you want to purchase one, consider how many times you will be heating the water and how large your family is. If you use hot water most of the time and you are many, you may want to buy a large one. If the reverse is true then you can opt for the smaller one. When the heater is too large, you will use too much energy heating it and when it is too small you will find yourself without water most of the time.
  11. Use air conditioners that are energy-efficient; those that will spend less energy in the long run. Get one that has a timer, or get it installed in the one that you already have. This timer will control its operations especially if you are not always at home and you tend to forget to shut it down when you leave.
  12. Opening your windows will help to reduce the heat of the summer, which will go a long way in helping you spend less energy in the long run as you will not use much energy with your air conditioner. Still, if you have a lot of humidity in the area, you may want to close your windows when using your air conditioner. This will prevent the humid air from getting into your home when you are cooling it. it will save you a lot of energy at the same time.
  13. Your air conditioner should have varying fan speeds to allow lower or faster cooling whenever you need.
  14. Install the air conditioner in a place that is central so that it does not use a lot of energy cooling the whole house.
  15. Set the thermostat of the air conditioner at normal or slightly higher but not high as this will save energy. Setting it at high in the beginning will not help to cool the room any faster.

Bonus!!

As a special tribute to our readers, Gridpar has provided OCAAT readers with a custom solar calculator to estimate approximate energy saving you can achieve by adopting Solar. Estimate how much you can save money and contribute to environment by using the calculator below today!

Readers, can you share some other methods you are following or have followed all along? Let’s make this article an useful resource for all future readers.

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