63 Electricity Saving Tips – Use Electricity Smarter

We’ve created a list of some of the best electricity saving tips to help you save money.

We’ve compiled a list of over fifty electricity saving tips that can help you reduce your electricity consumption every day. Apart from these electricity saving tips, another excellent way to control your electricity spend is to install prepaid meters.

Pre-paid meters are especially effective for managing the electricity usage of your tenants as you will no longer need to worry about monthly electricity billing.

Saving Electricity this year

Use lights more energy efficiently

1. Don’t use your lights unless you really need to and remember to switch off lights when you are not using a room.

2. Use energy saving bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. By changing all your bulbs to energy savers you can save quite a lot of electricity. How do you know if your bulb is an energy saver?  Check the Watts of the bulb.  An incandescent bulb uses 60-100 Watts, whereas a fluorescent bulbs uses around 16-24 Watts, and an LED bulb typically uses 4-6 Watts, making LED the most energy efficient bulbs.  This is the same for any appliance, because you pay for electricity in kWh – that’s kilo(1000)-Watt-hours – the less Watts the appliance is rated for and uses, the less you will pay for electricity while using it.  Don’t forget to check your outside lights for more energy efficient options too.

3. Dimming switches can also help you save electricity. You will need to make sure you buy dimmer compatible energy saver bulbs though as normal energy saver bulbs may not work or may have a reduced service life.

4. South Africa is a sunny country so use solar lighting for your exterior lights.

Your Geyser uses more electricity than any other appliance.

5. To save electricity you can set your electrical geyser’s thermostat at 55 ° C to 60 ° C.

6. Make sure your geyser has a thermal geyser blanket. This can drastically reduce your geyser’s electricity usage. You might also want to make sure your water pipes have some insulation as this can further reduce electricity costs.

7. Try to locate your geyser close to your bathrooms and kitchen where possible. A lot of heat gets lost traveling through water pipes and this can increase your geysers electricity usage. By shortening the distance from your geyser to the tap point you reduce electricity usage by minimizing heat loss.

8. Some people find it useful to switch off their geyser at night or while they are at work, to reduce the consumption of the geyser.  Please note that it takes about 1-2 hours for a geyser to heat up when switched back on.

9. Install a solar geyser. This can dramatically reduce your electricity costs and over a period of years, the savings will pay for the solar geyser.

Use your stove more efficiently.

10. Always match your pot and pan base size to your stove’s plate size. Using a stove plate that is much bigger than your pot or pan base wastes heat and thus electricity.

11. If the base of your pot or pan is warped then it should be replaced. This is because it no longer makes correct contact with the stove plate and this will lead to longer cooking times as heat is wasted.

12. When preparing dishes that take longer to cook a pressure cooker is an efficient way to do your cooking.

13. You don’t need to switch off your stoves hot plates when your meal is cooked. You can switch it off a few minutes early and the residual heat will still complete the cooking without using any additional electricity.

14. Don’t waste heat by opening your oven doors too often when cooking or leaving them open. This will cause your oven to have to reheat and so use more electricity.

15. Don’t use your oven as a heater, this is a wasteful use of electricity. You can, however, leave your oven door open a little once you are finished cooking to use the residual heat to warm your home. Just make sure to keep children and pets away from your oven.

16. You can also use the leftover oven heat to keep other dishes warm or to warm up bread or desserts or soften butter.

17. You do not always need to preheat your oven. Foods that require high cooking temperatures may need some preheating.

18. Minimise the use of your oven’s self-cleaning feature. If you do use it, do so just after you have finished cooking so that less electricity is needed that heating your oven from cold.

19. If possible, use glass or ceramic pans instead of metal ones as they retain heat better.

Microwave oven electricity saving tips

20. Only use your microwave for cooking or reheating small amounts of food. Your oven is more efficient for cooking meals that require longer cooking time.

21. Don’t use your microwave to defrost your food if you can help it. Instead, place the food you wish to defrost into your fridge and leave it overnight.

Smarter use of your fridge

22. Don’t leave your fridge door open for longer than is needed. It will use more electricity to cool down again.

23. Don’t put hot foods into the fridge. Let them cool down on your kitchen counter first.

24. Don’t let ice build up in your fridge too much. This can lead to additional electricity usage, so defrost your fridge regularly to save electricity.

25. If you are going on holiday and your fridge will be empty then you should turn it off.

Best electricity saving tips for heaters

26. Choose your heater well. The most efficient heaters are Infrared electricity heaters and will save you more electricity than oil heaters will. Oil heaters are however generally safer. To eliminate the need for electricity altogether you could use gas heaters. You do need to take extra care with gas heaters however as they can be dangerous if misused or one becomes careless.

27. Make sure your home is well insulated. This means insulating your roof, reducing gaps where heat can leak and even using double glazed windows if possible.

28. Make sure your heaters all have working thermostats. A broken thermostat will cause your heater to use more electricity than needed.

29. Don’t sleep with electric blankets on as this not only uses a lot of electricity but it can also be dangerous.

30. Another great electricity saving tip is to use hot water bottles instead of electric blankets. If you wrap your hot water bottle with a thin blanket or towel or use a hot water bottle cover you will keep its heat for longer. Hot water bottles can be very effective for heating your bed without using lots of electricity. Also, remember you only need to use hot water not boiling water so don’t boil your kettle all the way.

Save electricity by using your freezer more effectively

31. Don’t overfill your freezer or leave it to build up thick layers of ice. This will make it draw more electricity. Defrost your freezer regularly.

32. If you do need to freeze a lot of food, rather purchase a smaller deep freeze which will use less electricity.

Smarter dishwasher use

33. Instead of doing half loads make sure you only use your dishwasher when it is full. Two half loads will use more electricity than one full load.

34. To save even more electricity you can switch off your dishwasher before the drying cycle and use a dishcloth to dry your dishes or you can leave them to air dry.

35. Connecting your dishwasher to a cold water supply can also help reduce your electricity usage.

36. When purchasing a dishwasher, look for models that have short wash cycles and energy saving features.

37. Make sure your dishwasher is not placed next to your fridge or deep freeze. The heat from your dishwasher can make your fridge and freezer work harder to cool down and so wastes electricity.

Tumble dryer electricity saving tips

38. Remove as much water as you can from your washing before you place it in the tumble dryer. The wetter your clothes the harder your dryer has to work and the more electricity it will use.

39. If the weather is sunny then rather dry your clothes outside. Tumble dryers are best used during periods of prolonged rainy weather.

40. If possible, purchase tumble dryers that have electronic humidity control. These tumble dryers are more efficient. This is because they will automatically shut off the drying cycle once it detects your clothes are dry.

41. Make sure you set the right temperature when you do your drying. Consult your tumble dryer manual for the most efficient temperature settings.

Automatic washing machines and electricity saving tips

42. Use a front loading washing machine if you can. A front loading washing machine uses less water and consumes less electricity.

43. Use your machines cold water setting so that your washing machine does not need to heat the water.

44. Always wash full loads. Two half loads use more electricity than one full load.

45. Use more efficient and shorter washing programmes to wash your clothes. Only use long programmes if absolutely necessary. Pre-soaking very dirty clothes in a bowl is also better than using a longer washing cycle.

46. Another smart electricity saving tip is to use cold water washing powders to save electricity.

Miscellaneous electricity saving tips

47. When buying appliances try to look for ones with energy saving features and low energy requirements. Don’t buy appliances that are more powerful than you need.

48. Always use your appliances for the purposes they have been designed for. Don’t use the oven to make toast if you have a toaster. Don’t dry your clothes with a heater or hair dryer, use the sun.

49. If you are only making one or two cups of tea or coffee then fill your kettle with just enough for two cups plus enough water to leave your element covered. Only boil a full kettle if you need most of the water.

50. Use your kettle to boil water rather than your stove. A kettle will use less electricity.

51. Only buy and use irons that have a thermostat, this can help save electricity.

52. By smoothing your clothes when hanging them out to dry and using hangers you can reduce or even eliminate the need for ironing. This can save you time and electricity.

53. If you can do something by hand then don’t purchase an appliance to do it for you.

54. Do not leave your swimming pool pump on for extended periods of time. Use it only as needed and fit a pump timer to make it easier to manage.

55. In winter use thick curtains to help insulate your rooms and keep in the heat.

56. In summer use thinner curtains to allow air to flow more easily.

57. Paint your interior walls lighter colours. Darker colours will make your home look darker and cause you to use higher wattage light bulbs.

58. Instead of using an air conditioner try opening up all your windows to create a flow of air through your home.

59. Don’t leave your air conditioners running all the time. Let them cool the room to a comfortable temperature and then only put them on again when the room gets too warm.

60. If your air conditioner has a timer to switch it on and off you can use this to reduce its electricity consumption.

61. Use a solar air-conditioner if possible.

62. Install solar panels where you can to reduce your electricity needs.  This is of course one of the top electricity saving tips in South Africa.

63. Finally, remember to fit a prepaid electricity meter to manage your electricity usage better. This will make you more aware of how much electricity you use and you will stay mindful of the costs of your usage.