With the start of the school year and the holiday season approaching, it seems as though the mound of expenses just keep piling up. You’re budgeting for school shopping, lunches, holiday shopping and making sure your lights stay turned on. This season tends to be the most expensive for many home owners.

Luckily, we have a few ideas on how to cut back on utility bills and lower your electric bill. We also provide home inspections for everyone in the Northern Virginia area and look at ways you can utilize the most out of your electrical appliances. You may be heading into a time filled with many expenses but you can pad your pocket with money saved from lowering your utility bill. Check out these tips that will help you with your utility bills and give you peace of mind during this hectic season!

Install Dimmer Switches

When you install dimmer switches, you can use only as much light as you need. With a traditional light switch, the only settings are on and off, meaning you are either using 0% electricity or 100%. With a dimmer, you have an entire spectrum of settings in between. Being able to decrease the amount of light you use inevitably results in lower energy bills. Install dimmers in the rooms you use the most like the kitchen, living room, bathrooms, and bedrooms; this will allow you to take advantage of the greatest savings possible.

Keep Your Fridge and Freezer Full

Everyone always tells you to keep the fridge closed. But did you know that keeping your fridge and freezer full can also save money? Food acts as insulation and lessens the amount of time that the fridge has to run to stay cool. This will be easy to do with all of those lunches your family will have to pack for school and for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Install Ceiling Fans

Keep the air circulating in your home, and your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard. Ceiling fans can help lower your electric bill by up to 30 to 40 percent. While a ceiling fan doesn’t actually decrease the temperature of a room, the draft makes the room feel cooler – allowing you to raise the thermostat and be just as comfortable. You can even use your ceiling fans in the winter months! Many people are unaware that ceiling fans can be used to circulate warm air during cooler months of the year. By running the blades clockwise, ceiling fans push warm air down from the ceiling without creating a draft.

Get Rid of “Phantom Loads”

A shocking 75 percent of the energy used by home electronics is consumed when they’re turned off. These “phantom” users include: televisions, videogame consoles, stereos, computers and many kitchen appliances—basically anything that holds a time or other settings. A simple solution? Plug all of these items into power strips; then, get in the habit of turning off the strips between uses.  This will cut back on utility bills and will help combat overloading fuses.

Switch to LEDs

LED light bulbs use 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. Switch out the most widely used bulbs in your home. Then, replace the rest as they burn out. LED lights tend to last much longer than traditional bulbs so you won’t have to replace them as often – saving you money.

If you live in an older home, you may notice your bathroom is missing a bath fan. While it is easy to chalk these things up to nothing more than an inconvenience, it is actually much more serious than that. Those bath fans do more than circulate the air in the small bathroom. They are an important part of your home’s construction according to an electrician. Pasadena homeowners will want to ensure the fan in each of their bathrooms is working properly and if one is not present, it is important to have one installed. The Electric Connection can take care of this for you.

Bath fans should be used anytime somebody is showering. The steam produced during a hot shower can wreak havoc on your walls, flooring and even the fixtures in the bathroom. Moisture can lead to mildew and mold. Warping of the wood in the floors and walls is also possible. A bath fan pulls the steam out of the bathroom and reduces the risk of these problems happening.

If you do not currently have a fan in a bathroom, you have plenty of options when it comes to choosing the right one for you. Of course, there are the old standards that are nothing more than a fan. But nowadays, there are plenty of options. Lights are a common addition to the fans available today along with heaters. If a person hates using the fan during a hot shower because all the warmth is pulled out of the bathroom, the heat provided by the fan will provide a warm, toasty environment when stepping out of the shower. The fan should be installed by an electrician. Pasadena homeowners can call The Electric Connection to have their new bath fan installed. Take a trip to your home improvement store and check out all of the options you have and then give us a call.

Even if your electric bill isn’t really a problem for you, just imagine what you could do if you shaved it down just a tad. A few more dollars in your pocket could be put towards your retirement nest egg, save up for that new big screen television you have been wanting or maybe just going out for a nice dinner. It is your money, do as you please. There are always ways to save here and there and your electrician in Pasadena has a few simple tips you can start doing today, to get you one step closer to that nest egg. The Electric Connection has been helping customers for years with energy savings.

1-Cook with small appliances when possible. Use a toaster oven, skillet or slow cooker. 10. Use a timer to control outdoor lighting to only come on at dusk and turn off at dawn.

These are just a few tips. You can call The Electric Connection to begin saving money today by installing a ceiling fan and dimmer switch.