Life is getting harder and you need more money to spend on different aspects of life and different services, which might be a good reason to start looking for the best devices to lower your electric bill.
Don’t worry!
I’m an electrical engineer and certified energy manager with more than ten years of experience, and I prepared this list of 15 devices that can help you in saving on electricity depending on the place you are in.
15 Best Devices to Lower Your Electric Bill
1 – LED Lights
As per Energy.gov, LED light bulbs can save up to 75-80% on electric energy compared to what a traditional incandescent light bulbs, whilst giving the same amount of lighting.
Add to that, they live for up to 25,000 hours, 25 times the average lifespan of incandescent lamps of 1,000 hours.
In general, just replacing the current bulbs with LED ones can help lower your Electric bill, but depending on where you need them and how many bulbs you have, then you can take it further by installing the smart LED bulbs that can be controlled remotely or even scheduled for turning on and off through a mobile app.
One example is the Gosund Alexa smart light bulb, which can be controlled through Google Home or Amazon Echo, in order to turn it on and off remotely through your mobile phone when you forget it, or you can schedule their operation through the app that works as a timer.
Another option is the Ring smart bulb, but it requires a bridge that is necessary for allowing communication between the bulb and Alexa.
2 – Motion Sensors for Lighting Systems
Often times, in places with frequent occupancy by many people, people just don’t bother turning off the lights, like in the corridors in a big house or office, and entrance of a building, bathroom or kitchenette in offices or at restaurants, copier room, ….etc.
This device can really help in saving money on the electricity bill in such cases.
Motion sensors like the Ecolink Z-Wave PIR Motion Detector can be used to automatically detect the occupancy of the place and turn on and off the lighting units accordingly.
There are even smart bulbs that come with a built-in motion sensor like the Aukora 12W E26 Motion Activated Dusk to Dawn Security Light Bulb.
3 – Solar Lights
If you have a big garden or backyard, or if you use lights outside the front door, on the fence, on at the garage door, …etc., then using solar powered lighting units can help lower your electricity bill, whether at home, work, office, or anywhere you have them.
They come in different shapes and sizes, some can be hanged on the wall, some on poles, and some are stand-alone solar lighting units that can be implanted in the ground to light up a walkway, walkway, porch, garden, or even around a pool.
These usually come with a built-in rechargeable battery that can be charged by sunlight during the day, and would automatically turn the lights on when it’s dark, and off when the dawn comes.
4 – Solar Ovens or Cookers
If you have a sunny backyard, garden or even terrace at home, then this device can help you lower your electricity bill, assuming that you are using an electric oven or cooker.
Solar cookers and ovens are becoming popular overtime, as they can prepare the meals you want using direct sunlight like the All Season Solar Cooker, or even when it’s cloudy like I explained in this review of Fusion Solar Cooker.
5 – Solar Cooler
This device can help you lower your summer electric bill when you consume a lot of cold drinks and you keep opening the fridge to get them, or if you are using a separate electric water cooler, or a separate fridge from the one you have at the kitchen for food.
One of the options available is the GoSun Chill, but it costs some money to get, and might not be necessary if you already have a fridge that has space in it for the drinks and food you have.
Or, it can be also useful to use if you spend lots of time during summer in the backyard or by the pool and you need to stay hydrated with cold drinks and water, or even at your workshop if you don’t have a fridge there.
6 – Space Heaters (In Some Cases)
In general, using a central heating system or an HVAC unit to heat a certain space can be more efficient and less costly than using electric space heaters to heat the same space.
However, what if you need to heat a small room space around you, when you are in big space that cannot be closed like inside the living room in a big house, or inside a workshop.
If you use the HVAC unit or the central heating system to get warm, lots of energy will be used in order to keep the place warm as these systems work on heating the complete room where they are operating, until the thermostat turns them off.
In this case, it might be wiser to use a small electric space heater, such as the portable Black+Decker energy saving electronic heater, which comes with a fan that can push the warm air towards you, after you already place it close to you.
This way, you use electricity only to heat enough for you, instead of heating the air everywhere around you, which makes this device help reduce your energy bill.
7 – Automatic Door Closer
You might ask, how can this “annoying device” help you save money on your electric bill?
Simply, because two of the biggest consumers of electric energy are the heating and cooling systems.
And because the air is easy to move from one room to another, this means that keeping the door of a room open, even partially, could cause the cooled or heated air escape from there, thus, causing the cooling or heating systems to work harder for longer periods of time in order to get the desired temperature levels, which means consuming more energy.
It is easy to tell people to keep the doors closed, but it is difficult to force them to do so, especially when you are at a work place where there are many employees that are moving continuously, or where customers walk in all the time.
That’s why you need to use the automatic door closer, which can be easily installed, and by investing in its small price, you can potentially make that investment back quickly by saving on the electric bill with this device.
There are many types of automatic door closers that range in price and usage, which one to decide depends on where you want to use them, on which type of door, and how often the door they will be installed at gets opened.
Few examples are:
- KC17HD Safety Spring Door Closer.
- V150WH Heavy Duty Pneumatic Closer.
- Onarway Automatic Door Closer.
- Dynasty Hardware 1614-DURO Grade 1 Door Closer.
8 – Smart Programmable Thermostats
Often times people forget to turn off the HVAC and the central heating units after they leave a certain place like the home, apartment, office, ..etc., which leaves causes an unnecessary consumption of energy, and thus, raising the electric bill.
If this happens a lot at the place where you want to lower the electricity bill, then you may consider investing in smart thermostats like the Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Smart Sensor and voice control, which can detect the occupancy in the place and adjust the temperature accordingly.
Another option is the Honeywell programmable thermostat that you can program in advance in order to turn on and off on a certain schedule based on people’s usual occupation of the place.
9 – Energy Star Devices
Energy Star is a program that was initiated by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy, which is intended to give the EnergyStar label to electrical devices that follow certain criteria that encourage energy efficiency, which finally helps in lowering electric energy bills and in keeping clean environment.
Now the project supports more than 75 categories of products that consume electric energy when operating, such as:
- Lighting units.
- Fans.
- Air conditioning units.
- Water heaters.
- Electronics.
- Clothes washers and dryers.
- Dishwashers.
- Boilers.
- Windows.
- Ovens.
- Refrigerators.
- … Etc.
When buying a new appliance or electronic device, consider getting one that is Energy Star certified, which can be easily discovered through the blue label on the packaging or in the description of the product on Amazon.
10 – Air Curtains
Air curtains are usually used to lower energy bill in work places when a certain door is used frequently, or in places where customers walk-in all the time.
This is especially when the door separates between two areas with a big difference in temperature, such as the outdoor environment and the entrance or reception area of a workplace, supermarket, coffee house, …etc.
The air curtain works comes with a fan that pushes the air down in parallel with the door opening, in order to create a barrier and prevent the heated or cooled air from escaping to the outside, which then would require the HVAC system to work longer in order to maintain the desired temperature.
11 – Mini Fans
Sometimes, when at a big space, you just need a little air stream in order to feel comfortable, but you turn on the air conditioner and consume lots of energy because that’s the only option you’ve got.
This happens mostly when you have a big workshop, office, or even at the living room at your apartment or house.
And one device that can help you save on the electric bill in this case is the mini fan that works through the USB connection, which can take its electricity from the PC or from any USB socket.
12 – Evaporative Humidifiers
Evaporative air humidifiers can be good electrical energy saving devices in places where the whether is hot and the humidity levels are low.
These come in different sizes and shapes, and they can be used instead of the normal air conditioners in order to give you cool air.
The concept behind evaporative humidifiers is that instead of working through the refrigeration cycle, they use either ice or water in order to humidify the air and push it towards the space you want to cool down.
And this can give you the desired temperature at a lower cost on the energy bill, when compared to using AC units.
13 – Solar Water Heater
Water heaters are one of the biggest consumers of electric energy, whether during summer because people need to shower a lot, and during winter as hot water is hard to maintain unless you keep the water heater on.
However, when you have enough space, you can install solar water heating panels that would help you get hot water in good quantities and for free since you will use the sunlight to heat it.
Typically, during summer, you might get all of your hot water supplier through the solar water heating system.
And during winter, depending on your location and on the availability of sunlight, the amount of hot water you get from the sun might drop significantly in some days when its cloudy, but still, in the days when there’s enough sunlight, you might get most of your hot water from the solar heating panels, and the rest from the original source you are using, whether the electric water heater or the boiler.
But in general, these systems can help in saving on winter electric bills.
14 – Solar Electric PV Panels
These are different from the water heaters in the previous point.
Solar PV (PhotoVoltaic) Panels are connected to the electric system and used to generate electricity for supplying your electric energy needs, which makes these devices help in significantly cutting your electric bill.
Installing a complete PV system for any place, house, workplace, workshop, …etc.
This system can be installed in agreement with the utility company, and instead of using batteries for storing energy for night use, the system can generate more energy than what you need during the day, give it to the utility company through the two-way electric meter, and consume your need through the same meter at night.
At the end of the month, the company will compare the difference between the generated and the withdrawn energy as recorded through your electric meter, and will charge you only for the excess that you have consumed, in addition to some agreed fee, thus, lowering your electric energy bill.
Make sure before you install the PV system though, that you first try to minimize your electric energy consumption through the use of electricity saving devices mentioned earlier, in order to install a PV system that is smaller and save on the installation cost.
15 – Water Saving Shower Heads & Faucet Aerator
You might ask, how does this device help in lowering the electricity bill?
Simply, because if you consume less hot water, then you need less energy to heat water in the first place, and this applies whether you get hot water through an electric water heater, or through a boiler, which requires electric pumps to circulate water to the use points.
And using water saving faucet aerators and shower heads can help reduce the amount of water used while maintaining enough pressure for the water to do the necessary function like giving you an efficient shower, washing your hands, or cleaning dishes and different cutlery items.
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Conclusion – The Best Device to Reduce Your Electric Energy Bill
There’s no one device that is the best device for lowering your electricity bill.
You can use many of the fifteen mentioned devices based on your energy consumption, your place’s occupation, the place you live in, …etc.
See what is best for you, and make use of it.
Most important is that you don’t fall victim for the energy saving box scams and the power factor savers that don’t actually help normal residential or commercial electric consumers.
And if you still have any question about choosing the right device for you, or about a device that is not mentioned here but others are promoting to you, please, ask me in the comments’ section below, and I will do my best to help you out 