Update: This is one of my original blog posts that I’ve made some updates to. As the weather heats up, these tips will help you keep your electric bill down!
It’s heating up out there folks! There’s a month or two in between the winter freeze and summer heat where we hardly run the furnace or the air conditioning. Well, that time is over and we are running the A/C at our house.
So let’s dive into some easy ways to save money on your electric bill this summer.
Wear Shorts
I don’t know what it is about air conditioning, but some people think that they should be able to wear sweatpants, slippers, and a hoodie in the house all summer long.
You’re going to have a big bill to pay if you want to keep your house that cold. We try to keep our house comfortable, not arctic.
You’ll feel cooler if you wear shorts and a tank top in the house and run the A/C enough to be comfortable. If someone complains about being too warm, make sure they are wearing summer clothing before you crank the A/C.
Rotate the Curtains
In the winter we rotate the curtain to keep the heat in and the cold out. In the summer it’s the opposite.
Throughout the day, I close the curtains where the sun is shining in directly to help keep the heat out. I open the curtain where the sun isn’t coming in directly to keep our house bright so I don’t have to turn on the lights.
Update: The sun is intense where we moved to in Western Colorado. As we replaced window covering in our new home, I made sure to buy extra thick thermal/blackout curtains and shades and they make a massive difference! These thermal curtains are really good.
Don’t Turn on the Oven
Turning on the oven easily makes our house at least 5 degrees warmer. That means we have to run the air conditioning more to cool things down.
Our bedroom is right above the kitchen and I can feel our bedroom heating up if I’ve used the oven to make dinner. I hardly use our oven at all throughout the whole summer.
Click here for a bunch of summer meal ideas that don’t require your oven.
Fans are Good
I think fans are underrated. Sometimes you don’t need colder air, you just need air that is moving.
If you’re feeling warm, try turning on a ceiling fan or table fan before you turn the A/C on. Fans cost a lot less to run.
Just be sure that you turn fans off in rooms that aren’t in use. They can help people feel cooler, but they don’t actually cool the air.
Close Up Unused Rooms
Super simple: Don’t pay to cool rooms that nobody is using. We keep our guest room closed up. We can cool it down in a few hours if someone is coming to stay with us.
For a few summers, we closed off our entire upstairs, including our bedroom. We use window air conditioners and for a few years, we only had one big one for our main floor. We brought our bed downstairs and used the dining room as our bedroom for the summer!
Adjust Your Thermostat
Try to keep your house one or two degrees warmer than you did last year. Your body will adjust to the warmer temperature and you will save some money.
If you are gone for most of the day, adjust your thermostat so that you aren’t keeping your house cool while no one is home. If you have pets in the house, make sure you keep it cool enough for them.
Cool Off
When you’re super warm, do something to cool off instead of cranking the A/C.
Go for a swim or take a cold shower. Lowering your body temperature quickly will make your home more comfortable for you and keep you from running the air conditioning more than necessary.
Update Old Lightbulbs
When we bought our house, every single light fixture had old incandescent lightbulbs, which get quite hot. We’ve been gradually replacing these lightbulbs with LEDs, starting with the lights we have on most often.
Not only is this helping our electric bill because LED bulbs are so much more efficient, it’s also helping us keep our house cooler. I can actually feel the rooms with the old light bulbs get hotter!
Plant Some Shade
This is a long-term investment. If you own your home, think about planting trees on the side of your house that gets the most sun.
As the trees grow, you’ll get a lot of shade over your house which will help to keep it cool. You can feel burning hot in the sun, but 10 degrees cooler in the shade. Image how much that would help cool your house and shrink your utility bills.
I hope these tips help you lower your electric bill this summer!
How do you save money on summer utilities? What do you do to stay cool?
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candy says
These are all great ideas for saving money. I hang my clothes on the line. Saves us money.
Francesca - From Pennies to Pounds says
We probablyyy don’t get as hot as you over in the UK, lol! It’s actually raining here at the moment. Boo. Turning on the oven is a biggie, its SO hot with that on. Summery foods are lovely and BBQ’s outside. Same as Candy above, all the washing goes on the line – I do this any way but I can get so much more done in the summer!
Christine says
I’ve never put my washing out on a line. Sometimes I dry a few things on a rack indoors. My husband has super bad allergies, so I wonder if drying his clothes on a line outside would cause problems for him.
Amanda- LivingFullyandFree says
I wonder if you could try just putting your clothes out on the line and test it to see if your clothes bother him.
Then he’s not completely out of luck if that happens.
Amanda
Christine says
That’s a good idea Amanda. Worth a shot!
Amanda- LivingFullyandFree says
I am constantly trying to think up ways to save on summer utilities so thank you for this post! Unfortunately, the apartment building we live in takes the total cost of our building and divides it amongst all the tenants depending on how many people live in your residency. Even more unfortunate for us, there is only 2 of us and there are several large families in our complex, who let other families and their kids stay with them too. So our cost literally doubles in the summer months no matter what we do.
But I am going to keep getting creative so thank you for the motivation!
Amanda
Christine says
Wow, that is really rough! It seems like they should at least divide expenses evenly for how many people are in each apartment or something! I hope you find some creative solutions!!
Amanda-LivingFullyandFree says
I hope so too! Thanks!
Jamie @ Medium Sized Family says
Great tips! Dressing appropriately for the weather is a biggie. My kids constantly complain and I always tell them that they can easily change their clothes.
Christine says
Thanks Jamie! I remember complaining about that too when I was little, but it’s the easiest thing to do!
Erin | A Welder's Wife says
Great tips! One new thing we are finally doing this year is switching our comforter for a quilt. We love having a winter comforter all year, but now that we live in a shop apartment, it is not as realistic. In doing this, we are able to have a higher temperature at night than what we are used to, enabling the utility bill to be less.
Christine says
That’s a really good tip Erin, to change to summer bedding. Thanks!
Jake says
I agree, fans are really underrated! In our house, we have a fan in just about any room. During the summer, we turn on the A/C for an hour or two (sometimes even just 30 minutes!) and just turn on the fan after. It keeps the cool air circulating throughout the day!
Christine says
Yeah, I’m kind of wishing we had ceiling fans because I feel like it would make a big difference.
David @ Thinking Thrifty says
All great ideas. There are lots of ways to reduce bills in the summer months. Although, the need to cool things down is something we only sporadically need as Brits!
Christine says
Thanks! I always wonder about the weather over there when I see pictures of people wearing pants in the summer. 🙂