How to Save Money on Electricity Bills

Utility costs such as electricity can take up a significant amount of your monthly budget. It can be hard to generalize about electricity costs since they vary from province to province (costing up to 41 cents per kilowatt hour in the Northwest Territories and just 7.8 cents/kWh in Quebec). However, as the cost of electricity rises, being able to cut back on electricity usage can be a good strategy for saving money.

For example, the average electric bill for a family in Ontario is approximately $102.09 a month. Multiply that by 12, and you get a yearly bill of $1,225.08. Of course, the amount spent each month may vary, but finding ways to cut your kWh consumption by just 10% could save more than $120 a year.

Knowing how to save on electricity bills can help you free up money for other important costs like paying off credit card debt or setting aside money in your emergency fund. It can also help you reduce your carbon footprint.

Understanding Your Electricity Usage

Before you try to reduce your electricity consumption, it’s important to understand how you use your electricity. 

The biggest consumers of electricity in a home typically are:

• Heating and cooling/AC (40%)
• Water heating (15%)
• Appliances (14%)
• Lighting (10%)
• TV/Media equipment (5%)

Appliance energy consumption varies from one model to another, but here are some example consumption rates for different types of appliances:

Wear and tear to your home’s major appliances can significantly impact your energy bill. Appliances with worn components may be less efficient than ones in good condition—causing them to consume extra energy to operate.

For example, say a refrigerator has a bad seal that allows the cold air inside to leak. To keep your food cold, your refrigerator would need to work harder—consuming extra energy.

Practical Tips for Reducing Consumption

So, how can you minimize your energy consumption at home and cut down your monthly utility costs? 

One major suggestion is to practice smart thermostat use! Rather than locking your thermostat at a single desired temperature, try setting a ‘goal range” that covers a few degrees of temperatures that you would be comfortable with—this is a feature available to many “smart” thermostats. 

For example, instead of setting the thermostat to 23°C, set it to 22°C-25°C. This way, your home’s heating system won’t have to work as hard to maintain a specific temperature throughout the day and night.

"Adopting new habits to reduce your energy consumption is a great way to ensure savings month after month".

Dianna Hendriks, Credit Counsellor

Additionally, you can set your thermostat to turn the AC down or off during certain times of the day—such as during work hours when you aren’t home or at night when you’ll be snuggled under your blankets.

When shopping for new appliances, check their energy efficiency. While most manufacturers are good about making their appliances more efficient, a difference of a few kWh per month can more than make up a small upfront cost difference over the appliance's lifetime.

Lighting systems can be another opportunity to reduce energy use in the home. Consider purchasing high-efficiency LED lights over traditional fluorescent bulbs or even “smart” lights that you can control using an app on your smartphone or a voice-controlled “smart home” speaker like Google Home or Amazon’s Echo device. The apps for these lights (or smart home apps) often have power-saving features like adjusting brightness or setting timers to automatically power off lights when not in use.

10 Simple Habits to Reduce Energy Consumption

In addition to the thermostat tip above, here are some other simple habits to pick up to help reduce energy use in your home:

1. Take shorter showers. A standard shower head outputs 2.5 gallons of water per minute, which is 2.5 gallons of water that your water heater has to warm up. 

2. Stick to warm/cold water cycles when washing clothes. Using hot water in your clothes washing machine consumes more energy than sticking to cold/warm water cycles. 

3. Run larger loads of laundry less frequently during the daytime on the weekend. Ensure that every load you run is a “full” load (without overloading your washer). Doing laundry in the middle of the day on the weekend can help to minimize your energy costs if you’re a “time-of-use” customer who pays different rates for energy use based on the time of day. 

4. Turn off the lights when leaving the room. Make a habit of shutting the lights off before you leave a room. 

5. Use “smart” power strips. Some electronics never truly shut off—they employ a “standby” mode to power up more quickly. Consider plugging items like televisions, computers, and game consoles into a “smart” power strip device that cuts power to these devices off when not in use.

6. Adjust your water heater settings. Consider lowering the temperature setting on your water heater by a few degrees to reduce energy consumption.

7. Open your curtains during the day and close them at night. During the day, opening your curtains can let in some extra warmth. At night, closing the curtains can help to reduce heat bleed while you sleep.

8. Make sure your dishwasher is full before you use it. A dishwasher will use the same amount of energy and water per load—whether you have a single plate in it or a full load of dishes. Fully loading your dishwasher helps reduce waste and save you money.

9. Turn off the AC on cooler days. Is the temperature outside just the right temperature for you? Consider shutting off the air conditioner and opening your windows to let a nice breeze into your home. 

10. Set power-saving routines using smart home apps and devices. If you have numerous “smart home” devices connected to a single app, consider setting a “goodnight” routine that automatically powers off all devices in your home at your designated bedtime.

Investing in Energy Efficiency

Need help finding out how to invest in energy efficiency in your home? Consider applying for an EnerGuide energy efficiency home evaluation from an organization registered with Natural Resources Canada (NRC). 

During this process, an NRC-registered energy advisor will come to your home on a scheduled date to evaluate your home’s energy efficiency. After the evaluation, you’ll get an “EnerGuide” rating for your home and a report detailing some key efficiency upgrades you can make to improve your energy efficiency.

The report will help to identify the energy efficiency improvements that will have the biggest impact at the lowest cost.

Some common investments that may be recommended to make your home more energy-efficient include:

• Upgrading old appliances to more energy-efficient ones. When you’re looking to replace an appliance, consider looking for the most energy-efficient option to reduce the long-term cost of ownership.
• Replacing fluorescent lights with high-efficiency LED lights.
• Upgrading insulation in the home. A well-insulated home gains and loses less heat from external temperature differences. Improving insulation helps to reduce energy consumed by AC systems.

Checking for Energy Incentives in Your Province

Have you already made some investments in upgrading energy efficiency in your home? Be sure to visit the Government of Canada’s page on financial incentives by province! Your energy efficiency investments could help you qualify for grants, rebates, or loans that can help you cover your bills.

Simply click on your province from the list of links and search for programs you can qualify for. For example, if you’re considering an electric vehicle (EV) purchase, the Arctic Energy Alliance (AEA) offers a rebate to reduce the cost of purchasing electric vehicles in the Northwest Territories.