9 ways to cut your electric bill, ranked by effort

Most of the savings in a typical home come from a few big categories: heating and cooling, water heating, and always-on devices. Here's what to try, easiest first.

Five-minute changes

1. Lower your water heater to 120°F. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends it as a safe, efficient setting for most homes.
2. Switch to LED bulbs in the rooms you use most. They use a fraction of the power of old incandescent bulbs.
3. Use your thermostat schedule. Set it back a few degrees when you're asleep or away.
4. Wash laundry in cold water. Most of the energy in a wash goes to heating the water.

One-weekend projects

5. Find your standby loads. Plug a meter in line with TVs, game consoles, and computer setups. Our Kill A Watt roundup shows how.
6. Put entertainment centers on a switchable strip or smart plug so they fully power down. See our smart plug roundup.
7. Seal obvious air leaks around doors and windows with weatherstripping or caulk.

Bigger moves

8. Replace a failing or very old appliance with an efficient model, when it's due anyway.
9. Add attic insulation if yours is thin. It's often one of the better-returning home upgrades.

Know your rate

Your bill is kilowatt-hours times your rate, and rates vary a lot by state and utility. Look at a recent bill for your cents-per-kWh figure, then use it to price any device: watts divided by 1,000, times hours, times rate.

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