12 Ways You Can Save On Your Electric Bill

Producer’s note: Someone on Quora asked: What are the best ways to save electricity at home? Here is one of the best answers that’s been pulled from the thread.

Working under the assumption that you do not use electricity for space heating or for domestic hot water:

Eliminate your use of air conditioning. Use passive cooling (night cooling, for example). Do not use fans either.
Wash your clothes using cold water only (the colours will last longer anyway) and hang your clothes to dry, and only use a dryer in emergency cases.
You can save a lot on lighting using presence detection or daylight dimming, using smaller bulbs, or making better use of daylight with white paint on walls and keeping things doors and such always open.
Leave your windows completely unobstructed.
Buy a smaller refrigerator with a high energy rating.
When baking, use a small oven instead of the oven in your stove and try baking lots at the same time.
In general cook many things in one go instead of multiple times over a longer period of time.
Whatever doesn’t need to go into the refrigerator, simply leave it outside.
Use a microwave to reheat food.
Prefer hardwood floors to carpeting, as hardwood floors can be mopped instead of being vacuumed.
Put your PC and other electronics on sleep mode when not using it.
Most importantly: systematically start measuring your electricity consumption digitally, so you know at any time your consumption, and not just finding it out at the end of the month. You can’t save what you haven’t measured first.