Top Tips to Keep your Summer Electricity Bills under Control

Just because the mercury's rising this summer, it doesn't mean that your energy bills have to. The energy management strategies employed to save and make money by businesses employing energy management strategies can be supplemented by simple, fundamental energy saving principles that can apply to employees and consumers alike.

Here are a few of the strategies shared by CPower – a leading energy management and demand side management provider.

• Air condition only highly used areas: Heating and cooling are a significant energy expense and depending on the type of office, facility or home, can make up as much as 45 percent of annual energy bills. This summer, instead of cooling every nook and cranny of our work and living spaces, focus air conditioning to just the zones that are actively used.

By closing vents or shutting off zones where air conditioning isn't necessary, energy use will be lowered and cool air will be focused to high-traffic areas.

• Change light bulbs and light fixtures: While incandescent light bulbs are cheaper than other light bulbs, they actually cost up to 33 percent more on your electricity bill than do fluorescent bulbs. In fact, general fluorescent light bulbs also last 10-20 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Likely the easiest energy-cutting step, lighting changes could save more than 5 percent on overall energy bills. Another significant energy saver is replacing or retrofitting non-energy efficiency light fixtures to more energy efficient ones.

• Improve building efficiency with insulation and window upgrades: Making sure that cool air stays in and hot air stays out (and in the winter vice versa) is a crucial step for not only summer energy bill reduction, but for year round savings. Combining the savings from energy bills with tax credits from both your state regulations and the Federal 2005 Energy Policy Act will help these improvements to pay for themselves.

• Turn off office and home equipment when not in use: Many of us leave our office and home equipment on, even when it is not being used.  Turning off computers, printers and fax machines, and other equipment that often spends more time idling or in stand-by mode will save energy.  In addition, maintaining your equipment to ensure efficient operation can also help reduce energy use and ensure longer performance of your equipment.

A Few More Tips for Consumers

• Optimize air conditioning with a dehumidifier: Dehumidifiers make air conditioners more efficient and improve the way a room feels in general. Comfortable temperatures don't always require an increase in air conditioning, so much as a reduction in humidity. The less humid a home is the less air conditioning is needed to stay comfortable. While dehumidifiers require a small upfront investment, the savings is worth it in the long run.

• Purchase Energy Star appliances: A home's appliances-water heaters, refrigerators, washers and dryers, dishwashers, ovens, TVs and more-constitute about 46 percent of the average home's energy bill. Using Environmental Protection Agency-certified Energy Star appliances typically cuts energy costs related to those appliances by about one-third. If an entire home was retrofitted with Energy Star appliances, overall energy costs could be cut by as much as 15 percent.

• Use an instant hot water heater: Heating water only when a faucet is turned on can be particularly cost-effective for smaller households and can save homeowners money through energy efficiency tax credits.

• Install solar panels: This strategy isn't as expensive as most think. The initial purchase of solar panels typically totals around $15,000, a small price to pay compared to the amount of return. This is particularly true when a homeowner considers the value that an installed solar unit will add to his/her investment. Increased values are fed not only by reduced energy bills these installs will yield; they are also fed by buyers concerns over what will happen with energy prices in the future. Also, in many markets, homeowners using solar power can actually sell excess power back to utility companies and get paid for it. In coming years, as state and federal governments push for an increase in renewable energy, the amount of money to be made off of solar power will continue to increase.