We'd all like to save money on our energy bill, right? Did you know that leaving a light on in your basement or garage for a year could cost you between $65 and $160, depending on your electric rate? On today's episode, we're going to cover how you can potentially save some cash with a really simple swap.
[00:00:17] Welcome to the your Energy Footprint podcast, where we cover easy ways to lower your energy bill and other ways to make your home more sustainable with a few energy industry highlights sprinkled in hi, I'm Robin Saidov and I've been in the energy industry for the past 20 years in both utilities and power generation, and I'll explain everything you need to know for some quick wins in your home to become more sustainable and save some money. Now, let's dig in.
[00:00:43] When my family moved into our current home in early 2022, I was shocked by our first electric bill. I was basically pulling out my hair trying to figure out how it could be so high, $700 in March with no ac running. One of the things I realized, which was shocking to me, to be honest, was that all the lights in the house were incandescent. Just to note, you can't go to the store and buy incandescent light bulbs as of August 2023, but that doesn't mean that they aren't still in our homes.
[00:01:13] Incandescent light bulbs are usually rated about 100 watts. So if you think of a standard bulb you use in a lamp or ceiling light, that's a 100 watt bulb more than likely. If it's a smaller bulb in a chandelier or a lamp that's not intended to be so bright, it might be just 60 watts. If it's in a ceiling recess light, it might be 120 or more. I was taught as a kid to always turn off the lights when I left the room, but as an adult, it really just hasn't seemed like a significant thing to leave a light on. I've regularly left a light on in the basement or garage 24/7 if the switch isn't handy, anybody else out there do the same? Well, now I have three children and a husband that are also not concerned with turning off lights when they leave a room, and the result was definitely part of my $700 electric bill. By switching out all of the recessed lights in my house from incandescent to LEDs, I estimated that I'm saving about $100 per month. To give you a more concrete example, I have six recessed lights in my kitchen that are basically on all day, every day there are north facing windows in the kitchen, so it doesn't get enough natural light during the day.
When those six bulbs were 120 watt incandescent lights, and assuming they're on from 07:00 a.m. Until 08:00 p.m. The math is six bulbs times 120 watts times 11 hours, or almost 8,000 watts per day. That is 8 pay twenty five cents per kilowatt hour to my utility every day. I was paying $2 to keep my lights on in the kitchen. That's almost $700 per year. But I replaced them with led bulbs that use ten watts instead of 120 watts, which is a little bit less lumens, I guess you would say, but we really haven't noticed. If we redo the math with the led bulbs, it now costs me just keep the light bulbs on all day. It does add up to about $60 a year. So yes, I really should still turn off the lights when I'm not in the kitchen. But with the LEDs throughout the house now, I don't need to worry about it too much.
[00:03:14] I'm sure we all have lights in the house that could be updated with LED bulbs for major savings. Maybe you've associated led bulbs with the bright white lights that make you think of a sterile office or anything other than a cozy home.
[00:03:27] I can assure you that there are plenty of options out there. When I buy bulbs, I usually choose the soft white option, which seems to give a cozier vibe beyond the led bulbs. There are also more options now to control lights beyond a switch. If you'd like to install a motion sensor indoors, it's a straightforward job for a handy DIYer. The hardware will cost around $30, and you'll need a screwdriver plus a few minutes of time. You will need to turn off the power to the switch first at the breaker, and I would definitely invest a bit more to get a voltage detector to ensure the electricity is really off.
A basic voltage detector will run you about $20, and you should always stick it into a working outlet to make sure it is working correctly before you start the project.
If you don't want to go with a motion sensor, there are also bulbs like Phillips or Wyze, spelled Wyze that you can control through an app or through a smart hub. This route is definitely more expensive per light bulb, and you want to confirm that you can control what happens after a power outage, which might be a control in the app. You may not want the bulb to turn on when the power is restored in the middle of the night in a baby's room, for example.
Now that we've covered the options and savings, I wanted to zoom out a bit to see how these seemingly small changes can have a bigger impact on carbon emissions as a whole.
Every day, all day, your utility is monitoring electricity use for all of their customers.
The rule of thumb is that today will look a lot like yesterday, except for maybe the differences in weather. Every afternoon there is a peak in energy use when people get home and start making dinner.
Your utility needs to plan for this peak by having generating units that can turn on or ramp up production quickly to provide the electricity as it's used. That's right, electricity needs to be balanced between supply and demand instantaneously. If you lower your electricity during the peak by a little bit and your neighbors do as well, the lower demand adds up. The result will eventually be a peaking unit burning fossil fuel that doesn't need to turn on.
That's it for today. On next week's episode, I'll be discussing some recent news from the residential solar installation market. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. And we love feedback, so please rate and review this podcast to help more listeners find us. I really appreciate it.
[00:05:50] If you have any questions or topics you'd like me to cover, you can email me directly at
[email protected] or find me at instagram at @yourenergyfootprint.
Our mission at Your Energy Footprint is to educate consumers on ways you can be more energy efficient at home, as well as how to make significant investments like solar while saving money.
[00:06:11] You can find more information for homeowners interested in installing solar by checking out the prepare freebie in the show notes.
[00:06:20] All of our information is unbiased and based on my 20 years of experience working for utilities and as a renewable developer. We are not affiliated with any installers.
