Tip #2 to Get Out of Debt: How to save Money on your Energy Bills

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Tip # 2: Turn down your thermostat 3 degrees!

Since it’s the beginning of the month and there’s starting to get a chill in the air (at least where we live), we thought this would be a good place to start with this tip.

Tip 2 to get out of dept

Turn your thermostat down 3 degrees (even more at night when you go to bed, just use an extra blanket). If you have a digital thermostat, set it to go down at…

… night and back up a few degrees in the morning. Also, if you all leave the house for work or school, set it to go down when no one is home. (That’s free money!)

How much can you save by doing this? Traditionally, research shows that you save about 3% on your heating bill for every degree you turn back on your thermostat. So for easy math, let’s assume you will save 10% on your monthly bill by reducing your temperature 3-4 degrees.

If you have a $200 monthly bill, your savings would be $20 a month.

Multiply this by 12 and you get a $240 savings per year.

If you have a $300 monthly bill, your savings would be $30 a month.

Multiply this by 12 and you get a $360 savings per year.

You can follow the same principal for your Air Conditioning as well.

We know, this is not the most fun way to save money but getting out of debt is not always fun. Just slip on those slippers, use a blanket when watching TV or throw on a sweatshirt when you walk in the door (that’s why they are stuffed in your closets or drawers).

Caution, don’t get discouraged and turn it up “just for tonight”, once you turn it back up, chances are you won’t turn it back down again.

Monthly Savings = $30

Additionally, with many states going through a deregulation process with energy companies, you now have choices on who provides your electric and gas. We shopped around and found a great deal which is saving us additional money each month. If you would like to know who we chose, click here, enter your zip code to find out if it is available in your area. We are saving 28.6% on our electric supply portion of the bill, and we are saving 8.2% on our gas. Yea!!!

If you have more questions just let us know.

To see the other tips to get out of debt, click here.

We keep out thermostat at 66 degrees at night and 68 during the day.

What do you keep yours set at?

We would like to see what the average temperature people set their thermostat to.

Follow us over the next 31 days as we share tips on how we keep our spending in check and still be able to have fun, enjoy ourselves, have quality family time and keep ourselves debt free.

 

Parents of a Dozen

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Here are additional ways to save on your energy bills and other information.

Ambit Energy breakdown of energy use in homes

9 comments:

  1. We think this is a great way to cut down on cost as well. We do, however, during the day have the temperatures around 70, and turn it down to 67 at night. To help with the heat in the house, we make sure all blinds /curtains are wide open when the sun can shine in!
    I'm looking forward to finding out more ideas throughout the month. Thank you!!
    Shelley
    Canada

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    1. Our family room faces south with a lot of windows, and we get a lot of sun that does help keep it warmer in our main living area. Thanks for your comment. I hope you enjoy this series.

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  2. We stay between 65 (at night) and 70 degrees at our house. In the summer we go up to 78 degrees during the day and down to 74 at night. Our furnace died in February this last year (it was 28 years old), we decided not to go into debt to get a new one right away and got by with space heaters for 2 1/2 months. We saved some money and our tax return and paid cash for a new furnace. It was installed on the first day of summer. =) It's supposed to be very energy efficient and should cut our bill by almost 50% in the middle of winter!

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    1. It is great that you were able to purchase the new furnace without going into debt. We hope you enjoy the rest of our tips.

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  3. We haven't even turned our heat on yet. We plan on using our fireplace to supplement our heating bill this winter. My father in law gave us free wood and I have been saving sticks and newspaper for kindling. :)We usually keep ours at 68. Our house is 80% ceramic tile and since I work from home that would get pretty chilly! :)

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    1. I have a neighbor and a brother that use a wood burning stove to heat their homes during the winter. I know they save a lot. We use slippers and sweatshirts to keep us comfortable.

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  4. We keep our thermostat around 66-68 degrees at night. Our daughters are 4 and 6 so we can throw an extra blanket on their beds but we put an electric heater in our son's room (he's almost one yr old) and turn it on so he doesn't get cold. He's in a sleep sack but we don't want to put any blankets in his bed with him. Thanks for your tips...I have loved reading all of them so far :)

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    Replies
    1. Sarah,
      Thank you for sharing!66 degrees is a bit cold, but throwing an additional blanket on makes a huge difference. As for your little one depending on the type of sleep sack you use, he should be fine. We have a friend that keeps their house at 62. Now that would be cold for us.
      Sharon

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  5. Which i got information from Assignment writers is The Department of Energy estimates savings of about 1 percent for each degree of thermostat adjustment per 8 hours, and recommends turning thermostats back 7 to 10 degrees from their normal settings for 8 hours per day to achieve annual savings of up to 10%..

    Visit: https://blog.directenergy.com/how-much-can-you-save-by-adjusting-your-thermostat/

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Thank you for your comments!