Spending a lot more time at home means you may have noticed a spike in your utility bills. Especially if you’re cooking more meals and doing a lot more laundry and cleaning around the house.
If you’re wondering how to save money with so many people at home and running appliances all day NBC 5 Responds has a few helpful tips that could save you some money as the summer heats up.
First, the way you use your appliances can impact your energy bills. Did you know that you should match the size of your ports and pans with the burners?
“Look at your large appliances how you use them can really impact how high your energy bills are. A really good place to start is in your kitchen,” said Dan Wroclawski, home and appliances reporter for Consumer Reports. “A simple and kind of silly thing you can do is to just make sure when you're cooking that the size of your pots and pans matches up with your burners.”
For example, a 6-inch pan on an 8-inch burner can actually waste about 40 percent of the heat with that burner generating.
And remember that debate about whether you should put hot foods straight into the fridge? The answer could help you save a few coins.
“When you're done cooking make sure you don't put your hot food right in the fridge as that will cause the fridge to have to work hard to cool those foods down. So leave them out and let them cool off first," said Wroclawski.
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“When you're done cooking make sure you don't put your hot food right in the fridge as that will cause the fridge to have to work hard to cool those foods down. So leave them out and let them cool off first," said Wroclawski.
Another good tip to remember is to run certain appliances like your dishwasher and washer and dryer at night.
“what you should do is check with your electric company and see if their rates do change at different times of the day. If they do then the nighttime is a really great time to run your dishwasher. Run your dryer. Run your washing machine. It will really cut back on your energy bills if you do that," said Wroclawski
In the laundry room, Wroclawski also recommends using the highest spin speed possible when washing your clothes.
“What that does is get the excess water out of your clothes and then when you put them in the dryer it actually allows the dryer to dry them while using less energy and get them dry faster," said Wroclawski.
And use the highest spin speed possible when washing your clothes.
There are a few tips to save a few dollars outside your home. Experts tell us you shouldn’t cut your grass too short and not to stress about watering your lawn so often.
“You actually don't need to water your lawn as much as you think. A lawn really only needs about an inch of water a week. So if you have a really rainy week you actually don't really need to water your lawn at all,” said Wroclawski.
Texas A&M Agrilife Research and Extension has free resources online at watermyyard.org which allows you to enter your home address and will tell you when it’s time to water your lawn!
