You aren’t alone if you are scratching your head over why your electricity bill is so high. With the pandemic, each of the 13 largest metropolitan areas have seen higher bills. Monthly electric bills have actually rocketed up to an additional $37 a month in Philadelphia, $34 in New York, and $27 in Boston. While it is easy to blame your provider for hiked-up rates, your bill is actually much more likely to be high because of your usage habits. Fortunately, there are a number of solutions that can help with your skyrocketing electricity bill.
1. Unplug Your Appliances
Allowing these vampire appliances to remain unplugged is a leading reason why your electricity bill is so high. According to the Lawrence Berkely National Lab, standby power accounts for as much as 10% of your total home energy. While this may not have been a problem several years ago, modern electronics draw electricity when turned off so they are all remaining in standby mode. This includes all appliances like a coffee machine or microwave that need power to keep time while turned on. Instead of unplugging, you can also use power strips and simply turn off the power strips when you aren’t using them.
2. Cut Down on Using Larger Appliances
Bigger appliances like dishwashers and laundry machines have an insatiable appetite for electricity and using them too often can truly hike up your electricity bill. In fact, the average American family does close to 400 loads of laundry a year, using 40 gallons of water for a full load. The solution here would be to make sure you are filling your dishwasher to its fullest capacity before using it as well as doing laundry only once a week. Try filling your laundry loads to capacity as well, instead of doing a half load.
3. Using Appliances Past Their Prime
Surprisingly enough, using appliances past their prime is one of the biggest reasons you might be paying too much for your electricity bill. That vintage old-fashioned fridge you have in your kitchen might be cute and very picture-worthy, but there is no doubt it is driving your bill up. If your dishwasher, washing machine, or dryer was built in the 1900s, you can guarantee they are hiking your bill. To rectify this problem all you would need to do as a consumer would be to upgrade your appliances with new energy-efficient models. A new energy-efficient refrigerator will use four times less electricity than its older counterparts.
4. Change up Your Supplier
If you think you got the above covered, you might just want to resort to switching suppliers. Some suppliers are better at purchasing energy at a lower rate and this can trickle down to benefiting you.
There are still many reasons your electricity bill can be high. Although these are the main reasons, other culprits include using an electronic furnace, inefficient HVAC systems, owning a spare fridge or freezer, old incandescent lights, and using appliances during peak hours. After your initial shock at your energy bills wears off, you can hopefully fully assess the cause and take action to lower your usage.