Many homeowners are on the hunt for ways to cut costs and lead a more comfortable lifestyle financially. While eating out less and saving for retirement are good steps, it turns out you may be overlooking one of the biggest wastes of money in your life. Up to 35% of the electricity used in most homes goes to waste, which means that you could be cutting your electric costs by 35% if you know what’s using that energy!

Daily Energy Uses

Before we dig into what’s wasting the energy in your home, it’s important to address the expected daily energy uses. Heating and cooling, refrigerators, stoves, washer and dryers, and other important fixtures within your home are going to inevitably pull a large amount of electricity. You can cut costs to some degree by turning your heat down at night or when you aren’t home, air drying some of your clothes, and a variety of other practices. While those daily energy users are important, it will make more of an impact to focus on vampire appliances.

Vampire Appliances

Vampire appliances refer to the appliances that pull the most wasted energy within your home. Some of the most common culprits of this energy sucking include:

• Computers – many people leave their computers on when they aren’t using them. If your computer doesn’t need to be on, turn it off! Laptops tend to use more electricity than desktops so be sure to unplug them from their charger and turn them off when they aren’t in use.
• Gaming Consoles – by leaving your consoles plugged in when you aren’t using them, you’re wasting lots of energy. Plug in only one console at a time while you’re using it and keep the rest unplugged until you’re ready to play.
• VCR – the nostalgia of a VCR may be nice, but it’s time to move on. VCR’s use twice the amount of electricity as a DVD player does. If you insist on keeping your VCR, make sure it’s unplugged when you aren’t using it.
• Microwaves – do you really need that clock on your microwave when you aren’t using it? Probably not. Instead, plug the microwave in while you’re using it and keep it unplugged the rest of that time. That clock may look small but it’s a constant drain of energy!
• Printers – many people have multi-use printers in their homes. While they may be nice to have, they constantly pull electricity when you aren’t using any of their functions. Plug them in to complete your task and then pull the plug until the next use!

Contact Cardoso Electrical

To learn more about how you can save on your electric bill, contact the experts at Cardoso Electrical! Fill out an online contact form or give us a call today at 781-246-7700!