During the holiday season, everyone tends to use more electricity.  Families across the country have decorated their homes – and trees – with dazzling lights and sceneries. While lighting and electrical decorations do account for a significant portion of your holiday utility bill, there are other activities that figure into the equation as well, such as baking and cooking, having guests over, and gifts that require electricity. Make sure to follow our Christmas savings guide to ensure your electricity costs don’t get out of hand.

Any time of the year is a good time to save money, especially when it comes to the issue of one’s electricity bill. However, it is very understandable that the summer season is when one’s electricity bills tend to go straight through the roof because of the increasingly hot weather! This summer season, make sure that you end up saving some money on your electricity bill with the following energy savings cost cutting tips.

For starters, make sure that you keep your TVs and also your lamps quite a distance away from your thermostat. You see, both TVs and lamps emit heat, therefore prompting your air conditioning to actually run excessively and more than it really has to! Instead, place your TV and lamps across the room and think hard about switching to compact fluorescent bulbs.

Insulation is yet another thing you should do properly if you want to attend to your energy savings and your summer electricity cost cutting steps. You ought to insulate in an intelligent manner, for one thing. This means that you should look to insulate in some areas more than others, such as the attic. When you insulate your attic, you actually lower the negative effects of the heat that stem from the scorching rays of the sun. If you do this correctly, you are going to stop the heat that tends to build up on top of your home from actually filtering down to the rest of the residence.

Sometimes, your summer electricity cost cutting measures are so simple that they may even seem deceptively…simple! Take for instance the issue of your windows. When days get really, really hot in the summer months, just remember to close either your blinds or your curtains prior to leaving for work in the morning. This will minimize the effect of the sun’s blistering rays from beating down into the various rooms of your residence, thereby warming up your home to unbearable levels. As a sweet bonus, the fading effect of the sun’s rays to your rugs and your furniture will also be minimized.

Finally, you should use your microwave more than the oven for when you are preparing dinner. If you utilize your microwave, you can efficiently get your dinner ready in just a few minutes rather than an hour, and you will also be generating a lot less heat than if you utilize your oven!

So as you can verily see, there are a lot of things that you can do with regard to saving some money on your electricity bills over the summer. All that matters is that you have to be committed to adopting some of these money saving tips over the summer.

Improving your home energy efficiency is a worthy and admirable goal. You can help reduce your impact on the environment while saving money with savvy decision making. However, the up-front investment for some efficiency upgrades is substantial, so always do your due diligence before you find electrician services and commit to buy. Read on to clear up some misconceptions about home efficiency and make sure your money is being put to good use.

You Don't Have to Sacrifice Your Comfort: It's true that the best way to conserve energy is to use less of it with strategies like turning off the lights or keeping the temperature lower in the winter. But that doesn't mean you have to sit shivering in the dark. The key to efficiency is to get the same amount of utility for less energy input. That means replacing old incandescent bulbs with LED versions, or investing in better HVAC technology like a smart thermostat. That way, you can keep your home environment tuned to your comfort while reducing consumption at the same time.

Don't Rush into a Big Ticket Item: The most dramatic way you can upgrade your efficiency is with a brand new heating or cooling system. Equipment efficiency has improved drastically in recent years, and new technologies like geothermal heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar panels can all reduce your bills dramatically. However, they aren't risk free. You’ll often face a significant up-front investment when you find electrician services for these installations, and the actual savings that you will realize can vary widely based on factors like the price of fuel. You could also see a loss if you make a big purchase and decide to sell your home soon after; there’s no guarantee you’ll recoup the cost in the selling price.

That's not to say you should avoid large efficiency investments – just look before your leap. You will get the best return from these items if you already need to replace outdated equipment anyway, and if you plan to stay in your home for many years. To reduce some of the upfront costs, you can also look for federal tax credits that refund up to one third of what you spend, as well as options to lease solar panels so you don't have to put any money down at all.

Don't Forget the Insulation: On the other side of the coin, new HVAC technologies won't do you much good if all that treated air just leaks into the outdoors. One of the biggest ways you can improve your efficiency is by plugging leaks and upgrading your insulation, which is typically a much cheaper fix. With a leak detector, some caulk and spray foam insulation, you can seal up your house with minimal investment, saving you money in the short term as well as preparing the house to get greater efficiency out of newer technologies.

For more straight shooting about how to get the most value for your efficiency investments, find an electrician to conduct an energy audit on your house. Your local Mister Sparky® is always available to help!