Families in a typical single family home spend an average of $2,060 annually on energy, according to the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.
These steps will help you slash your energy bills, and you might snag a rebate or other incentive (check www.dsireusa.org).
Install a smart thermostat.
The first programmable thermostats promised energy savings, but homeowners didn’t fully tap their potential. Smart thermostats make it easier: They learn from your habits and automatically adjust temperature settings for the highest efficiency. The Nest 3rd Generation (works with Google Home and Amazon Echo, $249), ecobee4 (with built-in Alexa Voice Service, $249) and the ecobee3 lite (works with Amazon Echo, $169) have been certified by Energy Star. Independent studies show that the Nest thermostat will save an average of 10% to 12% on heating bills and 15% on cooling bills, or an average of $130 to $145 a year.
Pull the plug on energy vampires.
This story is from the April 2018 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.
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This story is from the April 2018 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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