Seniors love these 5 Secrets to Lower their Electricity Bill
Electric companies are now offering DEALS to anyone over the age of 40! It means that while electricity prices continue to rise, seniors can continue to save money. We’ve scoured the internet and found cheap electric companies with no deposit. Here are some of the most important things to help make your electricity bill shrink.
Getting Started
To understand how to find the best commercial energy supplier, you need to understand what’s out there. In the US, people pay for their electricity per kilowatt-hour. This means the electricity you used in a month is multiplied by your electricity rate to get the final monthly bill. The electricity rate, of course, differs by the provider. 4Change Energy charges $0.123 per kilowatt-hour on their twelve-month plan, while AEP Energy charges $0.129 per kilowatt-hour. Annually, the average US household will use around 10,649 kilowatt-hours of electricity, making the average annual bill come out at almost $1400.
If you’re a senior citizen who’s having trouble paying your bills, you should also know what’s out there to help you out. The Senior Citizen Billing Program from CPS Energy will extend your time in which to pay your monthly bill from 16 days to 25 days. This will give you the breathing room you need to collect the money.
It’s clear that this is quite a hefty chunk of your wallet. Even with prepaid, no deposit electricity, it ends up taking up a huge space in your budget. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can shrink that bill down.
1. Insulate The Home
Running your heating or your air conditioning a lot can cost you dearly. One of the best ways to lessen your reliance on them is to ensure your house is well-insulated. With good insulation, less outside air will get in and less inside air will get out. Even the best commercial energy supplier can’t make up for wasted heating and cooling. This is an easy way to ensure your home is always as warm or as cool as you want it to be, while saving you cash into the bargain.
2. Get a Tankless Water Heater
Your water heater might not be the first thing on your mind when you think of saving energy. But they’re another way your heating can leak away. With a water heater that’s a tank, it heats a huge tank of water every time you want hot water, even if you only want a little. However, a tankless water heater only heats a little water, and doesn’t store the water and keep it warm afterwards. Even the cheapest prepayment energy plan needs thoughtful use for you to save money.
3. Switch to LED Lightbulbs
Those good old-fashioned round bulbs can be comforting to look at, but they can end up costing you. Used just three hours a day, an ordinary bulb can end up costing you $7.23 a year, while an LED bulb costs just $1.08 a year to run. That’s not even factoring in the cost of replacing the bulb over and over again. This is one that’s easy to miss, but vital if you want to cut costs on your electricity bill. With this tip, you’ll have the cheapest prepayment for your energy yet.
4. Limit Water Usage
As mentioned above, using a tankless heater is a great way to cut down on electricity usage. But limiting your water usage overall takes this effect even further. One great way to do this is to check your shower heads and start installing aerators on faucets. If your shower head is an energy efficient model, it won’t use as much water. Similarly, aerators limit how much water comes out of a faucet. With these little changes, you could cut your usage by as much as 8 litres per minute.
5. Keep Your Furnace Filter Clean
Before you go looking for prepaid energy companies or the best commercial energy supplier, take a look around your home one more time. Your furnace is easy to miss, but if you take good care of it, it could save you tons in the long run. Clean your furnace fully at least once a year, and make sure you either clean or replace your furnace filter at least every three months. This way, you can cut as much as $50 a year off your energy bill.
Conclusion
Of course, it’s always best to do your own research. Your electricity situation is unique, and will be different from everyone else’s. But these guidelines will give you a framework so you have more money in your pocket, once and for all.
References
- “How Do We Pay for Electricity?”, EnergySage, accessed 15th February 2021, https://www.energysage.com/electricity/how-do-we-pay-for-electricity/#:~:text=For%20most%20homeowners%2C%20electricity%20is,month%20by%20your%20electricity%20rate.
- “Retail Electricity Providers: Top 25 in the United States”, ElectricChoice, accessed 15th February 2021, https://www.electricchoice.com/blog/25-top-providers-part-1/.
- “What you need to know about furnace filters”, Global News, accessed 15th February 2021, https://globalnews.ca/news/1621011/what-you-need-to-know-about-furnace-filters/.
- “Senior Citizen Billing Program”, CPS Energy, accessed 15th February 2021, https://www.cpsenergy.com/en/my-home/savenow/customer-assist-programs/senior-citizen-billing.html.