If you're looking to increase the efficiency of your home, there's some good news: Not only can you save a bundle of money with lower utility bills, studies show that you will be able to sell your house faster, and for more money as well. Green houses are attracting more attention on the market, so when it does come time to sell you could see a big increase in the price.

Decision Influencers 

Efficiency matters. Ninety percent of potential homebuyers rate home efficiency features as “very important,” according to a survey by the National Association of Homebuilders. The survey went on to report that 61 percent of buyers would pay up to $5,000 more for a house that promised lower utility bills. Other studies found that green-certified houses sell for $34,800 more than similar homes without efficiency features in California, and green houses in Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore., sell at a premium of 8.5 percent and 12 percent, respectively. The Seattle study also found that the green homes sold 22 percent faster than others.

Make sure your realtor is aware of all the efficiency upgrades you’ve made and can highlight them to interested buyers. If you provide old utility bills you can really showcase the savings. 

Keep that Electric Bill Low

The electric bill is one of the biggest ongoing household expenses, so any reductions you make will go a long way. There are a lot of places to look for savings. For starters, if you have old, outdated appliances, replace them with new Energy Star-certified models so you know that they meet the strictest efficiency standards. Your lighting system is another place to upgrade -- it's time to toss old incandescent bulbs and replace them with compact fluorescents or LEDS. Finally, if you really want to save money and make your house look good to buyers, install some solar panels on the roof, which can reduce the electricity bill to near zero. 

How Else Can I Increase My Efficiency?

Don't forget to take other steps to increase the energy efficiency of your home, especially when it comes to heating bills:

You can also hire a qualified professional to conduct an energy audit and point out other ways to increase your efficiency and save money. Even if you don't plan on selling your house any time soon, you can enjoy seeing the savings in your bills each month.

Your electric bill may be completely manageable and affordable. However, wouldn’t you like to learn how to save a few extra dollars every month and do something good for the world at the same time? Just because you can afford your current electric bill, doesn’t mean you can’t make adjustments around your home that will reduce the amount of electricity you use. A Santa Monica electrician is here to tell you about a few things you can do around your house to reduce the amount of electricity you use. The folks at The Electric Connection would love to share their knowledge with you.

Of course you know about turning off the lights when you are not in the room and turning off appliances when you don’t need them, but there are even more things you can do that will certainly add up to big savings for you and less burden on the power grid. It is no secret, our booming population has put a serious burden on our current power grids and blackouts from time to time during peak usage times are not uncommon.

You can lessen your impact by changing out your old, energy hot incandescent light bulbs to the more energy-efficient CFLs or LEDs. The CFLs are the spiral shaped lights that can easily be exchanged in your existing light fixtures. If you have a light fixture that will not accommodate one of these environmentally friendly options, talk with your electrician. Santa Monica residents can update their home lighting by replacing old fixtures with new, more modern and energy efficient fixtures.

Placing LED lights under your kitchen counters gives you plenty of light to see what you are doing and is extremely inexpensive to use and the fixtures are relatively cheap as well. If you are interested in doing your part to make the world a better place, give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your light fixture upgrade.

Sometimes the biggest challenge in saving energy is knowing where to start. Your monthly gas and electric bills come in big lump sums, so how can you identify the best opportunities to reduce your consumption? One of the smartest ways to get a clear idea of your energy consumption is to break it down appliance by appliance.

Disaggregation Technology

You can get a general idea of how much electricity your household devices use by reading the wattage labels and tracking how much time they are in use. However, to get an accurate picture of your household energy consumption, you need advanced technology that can break out and analyze exactly how much energy is being consumed by each appliance and device.

That's the gist of a recent report prepared by the energy startup Bidgely in cooperation with Pacific Gas & Electric. They teamed up to study 850 customers who were given a device that provided real-time readings on how much electricity their various appliances were using. The device used information it pulled from the home's smart meters to break down consumption for things like air conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers.

The data then allowed homeowners to make changes as to how and when they used their equipment, and the results were dramatic – households reduced their consumption by an average of 7.7 percent.

More Savings to Come

Most impressively, those gains came solely through behavioral changes. There remains much room for improvement if homeowners use the system to identify energy hogs in their households and replace inefficient appliances with newer, more efficient models.

Furthermore, the test was limited to people who already use time-of-day energy pricing, who tend to be savvier consumers when it comes to energy use.

“By definition, these people have already optimized some of their energy consumption in the home,” Bidgely CEO Abhay Gupta said to Greentechmedia. “We were able to demonstrate 7.7 percent energy savings on this time-of-use customer base. Imagine what we could do with a non-optimized home.”

Make Disaggregation Work for You

Bidgely is not the only company getting into the energy disaggregation game. Greentechmedia identifies others, like PlotWatt and Smappee, who are pushing into the market to provide the technology to help people save.

If you're interested in learning more about disaggregation or to find out if any of the companies are offering programs in your area, contact your local electrician, who can steer you towards the option that works best for your family.