I am constantly trying to find ways to cut down on electricity and water usage to reduce our utility bills. Our electricity bill this month sent palpitations to my heart with a 25% increase!

Today I am going to talk about ways to reduce your utility bills. That can even reduce your medical bills. High utility bills not only hurts your wallet, they can hurt your health too.

Electricity tariffs have been increasing over the years and it was announced that the electricity tariffs increased by an average 6.9% from July to September. SP Services cited the cost of natural gas that generates electricity has been going up. This would be the third consecutive quarter that the electricity tariffs has gone up, this means that the average monthly bill for a family residing in a four bedder Housing Board Development (HDB) will go up by S$5.61. Well, if the electricity usage is not monitored or controlled, you will be weeping to pay SP Services bill online. There are ways to conserve your utilities bill amount by following these tips.

Electrical appliances that saves your bill
First off, check if your electrical appliances have aged more than 10 years, you will need to invest new ones. Over the years, technologies have evolved tremendously the way these machines operate and you can save some money by buying the right ones.

Change those lightings at home to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) ones as it consumes energy 75% lesser which could work out to be substantial amount of savings throughout it’s left expectancy. Besides, there are also energy star – labelled electrical appliances which show the energy saving ability of each household appliances. Lesser energy consumption means smaller bills. It may be worthwhile investment to switch those frequently used appliances to the more saving energy ones for the long run, it will save your bank accounts.

Install smart switches
There are motion detectors that can be installed in those junction boxes. It works when you walk out of the room then the lights and electrical appliances will automatically turn off. Besides, not only it saves you from the hassle of looking for the switches in the dark or misplaced the controllers, it also level up the class to your home that saves you money at the same time. Alternatively, you can toggle switches using your smart phone even with your air conditioner, that way it makes you look even sophisticated. It would be a great method to check if you have switched off all your lights or electrical appliances using apps.

Unplug those cords
This is the easiest trick to save lots of money and in case you didn’t know, those electrical appliances are still running and continuously consuming energy even when they are switched off. You got to stop feeding into your bills by unplugging your electrical appliances  from the sockets whether it is used or unused. Simply unplug those wires before you leave for work or before you head to sleep, that easy! Here’s a ballpark amount to give you an idea of how much you can save up by this simple unplugging those electrical appliances, it is S$35 in savings each year.

Electrical appliances strategic use
Just when you are ironing your clothes, the iron will need few minutes to heat up, set in and go away for a pieces of your clothes. In order to save electricity, it is highly recommended you switch off the iron and begin the next piece. That heat from the iron will linger around enough for you to straighten the next blouse. If the heat is running out, just switch it on again and it will be heated up in no time. How about if you are heating up small portion of food? You can opt to use a toaster to heat up instead of using microwave or oven because toaster works faster and consumes considerably lesser energy than those ovens and microwaves.

Clean your air conditioner filter
Most Singaporean households pretty much ignore the cleanliness of their air conditioner filter and it’s regular maintenance. Do you know that as the AC clogs up with dust over the time, it will be difficult for cold air to ventilate. This means your AC will utilize more energy trying to keep your room cool. Figure out how to remove and re-install its filter on the internet based on your AC model. You can simply rinse or vacuum the dust from your filter. If you have rinsed the filter, ensure that the filter is dry before you attach it back to your AC to avoid mold and mildew problems from surfacing.