Easy Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills and Save Money
Easy Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills and Save Money
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Easy Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills and Save Money

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Speaker 1: It's you versus the utility companies in a battle for your money, which doesn't seem fair. But this video is filled with tips to help you get the edge and save some death. Speaker 1: There are actually a handful of easy and relatively painless way that you can save money on your utility bills. And this is important because then you can take your hard earned dough that you've saved and spend it [00:00:30] on important stuff like snacks or other necessities, actual groceries, but snacks. So we're going to go over those options, including some nice, smart home gadgets you can use to help you save money, but we've got other tips as well, some as simple as how to best wash your dishes or why you should mess just a little bit with your water heater. And if you want to skip to any part in particular, we've [00:01:00] got time codes below. Let's dive in, As it turns out connected devices. Aren't just for showing off to your friends, by turning off the lights without getting off the couch, lots can legitimately help you save money either by consuming less power at, as they work or giving you more ways to monitor and control what you're using. Lots of connected devices have some sort of money saving [00:01:30] ability, smart sprinklers, help you save water. Some smart blogs will track the energy usage of what you've plugged into them, but let's focus on our favorite devices for the task Speaker 1: Thermostats. A according to the department of energy, you can save as much as 10% on your heating and cooling costs by changing your thermostat setting by seven to 10 degrees for eight hours per day. So let it get a little cooler in the winter or a little warmer in the summer. You know what devices are great at helping [00:02:00] you do that smart thermostats most make it really easy to set a schedule using their app. Some will actually learn your behaviors over time and make those changes for you, or they can track your phone so they know when you're coming or going. So I'm not actually talking about turning your thermostat down by 10 degrees at dare time and forcing your family to huddle under the, like its while they enjoy your gourmet spaghetti. I'm talking about changing your thermostat when you're sleeping or while [00:02:30] you're at work or both. Our favorites include the third gen nest learning thermostat and eco V smart thermostat at the high end and the Amazon thermostat. If you want something with a more budget friendly buying Speaker 1: Lights, it turns out in Candescent bulbs. Aren't very efficient who knew 140 year old invention could be improved and what we have improved it very much so recently it just took a long time. Most led [00:03:00] bulbs use around 85%, less energy than their in Candescent cousins. That's a lot of percent now, funny story, you don't actually need smarts. There are plenty of dumb LEDs and they will save you money on energy and they're more affordable, but these smart versions are affordable now too. And they're super common and the smarts let you set schedules. You can trigger your lights with other smart devices like motion sensors or smart speakers. [00:03:30] You can turn them off after you've left with the app in case you forgot. And yeah, cool factor is important too. You gotta get that high five from your SW neighbors. Somehow. Now Check out the Phillips hu starter kit or wise bulbs. If you want to dive in, if you do feel like getting fancy, you can also install a monitor like this one from scents, which can help you better track your energy usage. So you can take direct steps to cut down Speaker 1: And, and [00:04:00] enough smart home stuff. Tip number two, use your dishwasher instead of hand washing your dishes. I imagine this one is surprising, but hopefully it qualifies as good news. I'm asking you to do less work. Modern dishwashers are very efficient in their water usage. At this point, the department of energy regulates regular model have to use five gallons or less. Believe it or not the us geological survey estimates that it takes anywhere from nine to 27 [00:04:30] gallons of water to hand wash a load of dishes. You think you're helping with your elbow grease? Nope. Just put 'em in the dishwasher and use all of that extra time. You now have to count all those dollar bills. You just save Speaker 1: How hot is too hot. And with that, I'm specifically referring to the water coming out of your faucet and nothing else by default, your water heater is set to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and you're almost certainly not gonna [00:05:00] need water. Hot are than 120 degrees. So crank it down. You're paying for the heat used by the machine to get that extra 20 degrees in there. Even if you never actually use water, that's that hot? The thermostat dial on your water heater is likely near the bottom of the tank on the electric or gas control valve. Check the manual, consult a professional. If you need to be safe, please, but this is what it looks like in the smart home. And it's actually pretty easy to adjust. And just like that [00:05:30] this lot of money appeared in my pocket. Nope. Results will certainly not be that instant Speaker 1: While you're feeling handy. Another quick piece of maintenance do is change the filter on your HVAC system. Dust makes the whole process less efficient, keep them clean and keep the air flowing. Allow me to take you on the journey. Then as I do the same here at the CNET smart home, here we go. So I'm definitely not a professional at this, [00:06:00] but one thing you want to make sure you do before you mess with your HVAC system is cut the power to it. You can do that on the circuit breaker, but a lot of models have a switch. It's just like a light switch. And then boom, the HVAC system is off and likely won't explode when I try to do this. So the filter is then down here, you should look for a compartment that looks something similar to this and this just has a screw. And then [00:06:30] we turn off and find the filter. Now with this, you can see it has little push tabs. You can punch 'em in and pull the filter out. Fortunately, this one's actually pretty clean because we swapped it early this year, but normally you're gonna then take a clean one and shove it right back into place and put the stand back up. And you did it right in the, Speaker 1: [00:07:00] I know that talking with the utility companies can feel like flirting with the enemy, but some actually offer time of use plants that raise the cost of energy during peak hours. But in exchange, they bring the price down during the rest of the time. You might not more wanna do this. If you work from home or you need to run your appliances during the start or end of day rush. If you're gone during the day and you can run your dishwasher and washing machine at night, you can [00:07:30] indeed save some money with a plan like this and a proper schedule. I'm pretty sure they just make you pinky swear that you won't intelligently use a plan like this when you sign up, but a picky swear over the phone likely won't hold up in a court of law. And so you'll save money and turn the tables on those dastardly utility companies. So stop washing dishes right now, note that none of these tips should actually involve much work or discomfort on your part. That's not the point, work smarter, not harder, [00:08:00] and then make it rain. And like in subscribe, if you want to see the products we recommended at the retailers, check out the links below and thank you very much for watching.

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