With many of us feeling the squeeze of a higher cost of living, you may be looking for a few ways to lower your utility bills that won’t involve a complete change of lifestyle. Here are just a few simple ideas to reduce your utility costs.

-Switch your switches to dimmers. We don’t always need our lights on full brightness, so using a dimmer switch instead can help save on electricity by only using as much light as you need.

-Fill your freezer. You may not expect this, but having a full freezer actually helps to insulate it, keeping your food cool while using less energy to do so.

-Let food cool before refrigerating. If you’re saving leftovers from your dinner, putting them in the refrigerator while they’re still warm actually causes the fridge to have to work harder to cool them down. Let them cool first.

-Unplug unused chargers. Did you know that many phone and laptop chargers continue to suck electricity even when your phone isn’t connected? Make sure to unplug any that you aren’t using.

-Use solar night lights outdoors. Solar night lights spend the day soaking up the sun’s energy then turn on in the evening when it’s dark. It saves the need for any electricity or batteries and is totally green, helping the environment and your wallet.

-Lower your hot water heater temperature. Do you really need the hot water to be totally boiling? You can turn the temperature down so that your water is only as warm as you need it to be.

-Cold wash your laundry. Most laundry washes are just as thorough when washed cold. Switch your machine settings to cold washes rather than hot to save unnecessary extra spending on heating the water.

Photo by Ying Ge on Unsplash