With the winter season upon us, you are probably dreading the higher seasonal electrical bills. What you may not know is that you can prepare ahead of time and cut your electrical usage down with simple tricks. In fact, some of these tricks are quite passive ways for saving energy and money:

Move Your Refrigerator away from Heat Sources

Most people are surprised to learn that when your refrigerator is close to a heat source, the appliance reacts by kicking on to provide continuous cold air inside. The machine thinks it is being exposed to desert heat, and not just a hot stove or a heating vent. If your refrigerator is within two or less feet of your stove or the heating vent in your kitchen, move it. Find a way and a place to put the refrigerator so that it is at least four to six feet away from a heat source. The less heat the refrigerator senses, the less it will kick on, and the less it kicks on, the less electrical energy it will use.

LED Bulbs

If you are like most people, you want more light in the darker winter months, and you turn your lights on earlier in the evening too. This consumes quite a bit of electricity. You can either turn off lights in rooms you are not using, or you can invest in LED bulbs for your lamps and ceiling fixtures. LED bulbs use the tiniest fraction of energy, but give off the brightest and greatest amount of light. 

Programmable Smart Thermostat

Sure, a programmable thermostat is excellent at controlling electrical energy consumption, but a smart programmable thermostat is even better. These are thermostats that can be controlled by your smartphone or mobile device. If you want it a little warmer in the house, you can do that without even getting up from your chair. If you want to turn on the A/C in your home and let it run for twenty-four hours before you return from vacation so that your home is nice and cool, you can do that too. You have total control over the energy consumed with the smart thermostat.

Shorter Showers

Who does not love a good long soak in a hot shower? The only problem is that a ten-minute shower uses a lot of electricity (when your water heater is electric). As much as you may hate the idea, a three-minute shower is enough to wash everything important and get out. That is seven minutes of electricity, per person, per day that goes unused. After a month, that really adds up!

Contact a home energy management service near you for more information and assistance.