The electric bill has that summertime glow to it once again.
That is the glow of my money getting sucked from my wallet.
There is just something about writing that utility check that breaks me down. I remember my dad always yelling at us to keep the door shut when the air conditioning was on. He would get livid when I left a door ajar during the summer months. He also gave me the money doesn’t grow on trees lecture. But that man would be spinning in his grave if he was witness to the amount I am paying to heat and cool our home. It came to me the other day that I could be doing way more to get the energy bill down. Our HVAC system is fairly new so, I know it has a very high SEER number. So, heating and cooling equipment efficiency in not at all the issue. Those living inside the house are the issue. That led us to making some real, tangible changes. We installed a smart thermostat to better manage the HVAC use far more precisely. We even bought some automatic blinds to sync with the new thermostat. It amazes me that the new thermostat can detect hot spots throughout the house and then drop the shades on that area. Simply knocking out the direct sun heating made a tremendous difference in the amount of time the HVAC is working. I added another good behavior by being certain that the air filter is changed every single month. We also took a day and sealed all the cracks and gaps we could find on the exterior of our home. These minor changes will give us at least a 15 percent savings on that monster of a utility bill.