How to Keep Your Electricity Bill Low While Working From Home
Since you spend a lot more time at home, your electricity bills are likely overpriced. So, here are some easy ways to keep your energy costs down while maintaining comfort.
We often think of items like light bulbs, televisions, and plugged-in chargers as large energy consumers, but they actually have very little effect on your overall consumption. The big players here are items with motors and heating elements: your refrigerator, freezer, air conditioner, and water heater.
Set the refrigerator to 38 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. As long as both are full, your food will stay fresh and the motor won’t run as hard. While you’re in the kitchen, make scrape all food bits from your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, but no pre-wash the dishes in full in advance.
You can probably shower less each week (it’s good that you’re not as active as you used to be) to save on hot water. Wash your laundry in cold water, make sure your dryer lint trap is clean, and use drying balls (or tennis balls) to keep drying cycles as short and effective as possible.
To save on air conditioning costs, close your blinds and curtains on hot days. Keep ceiling fans clean and run counterclockwise on hot days to raise cool air while minimizing the use of cooling devices.
For all of these tips and more, watch the video above.
Originally published April 2020 and updated on March 15, 2021 to reflect the current Lifehacker styling.