Smart Utility Saving Tips for Your Residents By Livable

Welcome to our Smart Savings Guide! At Livable, we are all about saving energy and water and saving you money. But we can’t do this successfully without you! So we are here to empower you to save money and energy with our smart savings tips around your home, kitchen and bathroom. Start saving today by following these Smart Saving Tips below.

Overall Home:

Saving energy does not have to be synonymous with losing money. Reducing the energy needs of your spaces can be as simple as turning things off and the types of curtains or rugs you use. Check out these tips to help reduce your energy costs everywhere around your home.

1. It may seem obvious, but don’t leave lights on when moving from room to room.
2. If you have west-facing windows, invest in blackout curtains and keep them closed if you’re not using the space. They’ll protect your furniture and art from sun-bleaching and keep the rooms cooler too. Morning sun is weaker, so it’s not as important for east-facing windows, but can be helpful, especially if you like to sleep in!
3. Insulate your home in colder months by using area and throw rugs. This will keep your floors warmer, using less energy! And who wants to put their feet on a cold tile floor? Curtains help insulate in cold weather too.
4. Replace incandescent light bulbs with LEDs or compact fluorescent bulbs when possible.
5. Fans cool people, not rooms. They work by evaporating the moisture from our skin to make us feel cooler. So there’s no need to run ceiling fans or other fans when there’s no one in the room.
6. Be sure your curtains and furniture aren’t blocking fans, ducts, heating registers and cold-air return registers to keep air circulating effectively.
7. Keep electrical appliances away from your thermostat! The heat from those appliances may affect your thermostat’s performance by causing it to kick on more often than necessary.
8. Unplug appliances when not in use. Even if they’re off, they’re drawing power, especially if they have an indicator light of any kind. “Vampire appliances” will suck power from the grid, burning energy and money.
9. Reversing direction on ceiling fans seasonally can help heat apartments by pushing warm air down in colder months. It’s as easy as climbing up to the fan and flipping a single switch. Make sure to switch it back for summer! 
10. Use cool water to do laundry so you don’t waste energy on unnecessary water heating. Many detergents are now formulated to clean clothes better in cold water. Spot treating stains helps too.

Kitchen:

The kitchen uses a lot of energy.  There are so many small things in the kitchen that we don’t consider, but they add up quickly when it comes to energy bills. Thankfully, those small things can be negated by simple steps you can take to reduce your energy consumption in the kitchen and focus more on consuming good things to eat.

1. Only run the dishwasher or washing machine when it’s full. This saves water and electricity. Otherwise, use your machine’s half-load setting if possible.
2. Make sure there’s room for air to circulate in your refrigerator. It’s easy for vents to get blocked, reducing efficiency and wasting power.
3. The opposite is true for the freezer! The more full it is, the more efficiently it runs because it’s not chilling air space.
4. Don’t leave refrigerator or freezer doors open at length: the longer they’re open, the more energy wasted. Know what you’re after rather than standing at the open door browsing.
5. Start cooking on medium heat instead of high. It’s better for your cookware, your food and your energy bill. You can always turn it up!
6. Scrape food off plates instead of rinsing them before loading them in the dishwasher to save water. Modern dishwashers are much better at removing food from dishes and don’t need the extra step. A silicone or rubber spatula is the perfect tool to get plates and bowls dishwater-ready without water.
7. Save energy by opting to use a microwave or toaster oven or other appliances instead of turning on the oven, especially in warm weather. It takes longer to heat the oven and it may warm up your kitchen, causing your AC to use more energy too.
8. When cooking on your stove, keep lids on pots and pans. This helps keep in heat and prevents wasting energy. Your food will cook better and more evenly too, and you clean up fewer spatters.
9. Keep a jug of water in the fridge so you don’t have to run the tap until it’s cold.
10. Let food defrost in the fridge overnight rather than running it under the tap water. 

Bathrooms:

The bathroom and water go hand in hand. And so does over consumption of water. The long shower, the running water while brushing teeth, or the possible slow leak in the toilet all put a massive drain on the energy bills in a living space. There are simple things you can do to reduce your water usage.

1. Replace baths with showers! Baths use up a LOT of water. Taking a shower instead of a bath is a simple way to start saving! (Just don’t stay in there for 20 minutes!)
2. This tip is a little out of the ordinary, but you can save a lot of water by displacing the water in your toilet tank. Take an old bottle and fill it with water then place the bottle in the tank and the toilet will use less water to fill up before your flush. If your housing provider is remodeling, ask for low-flow toilets and showerheads to reduce waste.
3. Don’t let the water run when brushing your teeth. A family of four can waste 4 gallons of water with every brushing, adding up to almost 12,000 gallons of water a year!
4. Use a timer for kids’ showers. Set it to play a few of their favorite songs and automatically shut off when songs are done so they get in the habit of monitoring shower time. (While you’re at it, do that for yourself too!)
5. Bathroom fans should only run long enough to clear the moisture from the room. That way you avoid using excessive energy.
6. Report any leaks, such as a “running” toilet or a dripping faucet, to your housing provider as soon as you notice it. Trust us – they’ll be thrilled you did.
7. Consider reusing towels after showering rather than using more water by washing them after each use.
8. Save some energy and hair damage by reducing your hair dryer use and allowing your hair to air-dry more often.

Livable is a full-service residential & commercial real estate billing partner. Focusing on bulk amenity/utility billing, their mission is to promote savings and conservation through education. Their suite of cloud services and end-to-end solutions helps to reduce monthly consumption, overall expenses and adds more money to your bottom line. To learn more, visit livable.com.