How to Hack Your Electric Bill

HOW TO HACK YOUR ELECTRIC BILL At $163 per month, the average U.S. homeowner's utility bill is getting increasingly bloated. It's not going to get any better thanks to new rounds of rate hikes being rolled out by big investor-owned utilities. Thankfully, there's an ingenious way for you to keep that money for yourself (and maybe even game the system a little, too). HACK ONE: Batch and Shut Off Your Gadgets Energy meter devices like the Kill-A-Watt are great, but do you really need a new gadget to tell you how much power your old ones are using? The low-budget hack is to batch all your stuff on power strips, then turn the strips off when you're going to work or to bed. For the real win, you can automate. A new generation of programmable power strips like the Titan Controls Apollo ($25.75) and the Tripp Lite ($35.21) let you schedule regular, up-to-the-minute shutdowns using digital calendars. • What to Auto-Shutdown When You're Away or Unconscious • DVD Player LCD Device Cost to Keep Plugged In (And Turned Off!) For One Year Computer Screen $1.55 TV (CRT) $1.13 $3.07 Game Console $1.01 Computer Speakers $1.80 DVR Coffee Maker $1.14 $36.80 Inkjet Printer Digital Cable Box $1.26 $17.89 Microwave $3.09 $1.05 000001 Surge Protector $78.73 MONEY YOU GET TO This data represents energy use in kilowatt hours for a whole year, assuming the device is in off mode for 23 hours each day. Cost is based on the national average for residential grid power. If you live in a state with more expensive electricity, you'll likely pay more just to keep those gadgets plugged in! KEEP THIS YEAR • WHY DOES THIS MATTER? • How to Automate People want to save money on their electric bills, but they don't realize that just keeping those gadgets plugged in is costing them money. A study by the Consumer Electronics Association examines the problem. Set a house rule that only programmable power strips can be plugged directly into the wall. Everything else has to be plugged of adults are "not of adults are into a strip, then you can schedule 60% BUT (36% concerned" with the amount of power their gadgets and appliances consume. strips to shut down when you're concerned about the cost of their at work or asleep. electric bill. HACR TWU: Buy All your Electricity in Advance What if you could buy all the gasoline you'd ever need for your car at today's prices and get a bulk discount for doing it, too? That's exactly what a sample of our solar homeowners from around the country did, using a little-known arrangement called a Pre-Paid Solar Power Purchase Agreement (pre-paid PPA). It's different from a solar lease, especially in how much cheaper the electricity ends up being. BENEFITS OF PRE-PAID SOLAR POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS • WHAT THESE 39 HOMEOWWNERS USED TO PAY WHAT THESE 39 HOMEOWNERS DID PAY FOR ELECTRICITY $233.69 for 1 month's worth of electricity $151.36 for 1 month's worth of electricity 76% $2,804.25 for 1 year's worth of electricity $1,816.28 for 1 year's worth of electricity $92,725.14 for 20 years' worth of electricity $21,795.36 for 20 years' worth of electricity AVERAGE SAVINGS FOR 20 YEARS' WORTH OF ELECTRICITY ON A PRE-PAID PPA! WITH • ELECTRICITY / LEVELS OF GOODNESS • PRE-PAY SOLAR PPA Hacktacular SOLAR PPA Really Great SOLAR LEASE Getting Better This is a dirt-cheap solution. A GRID POWER provider puts a solar system on This is clean and significantly your roof, and you buy all the Ew, Gross electricity you'll ever need from cheaper than your current it at a deep discount before it's power bill. A provider puts a generated-performance solar system on your roof for low or no upfront cost, and you This is clean and cheaper than guaranteed. In exchange, the your current power bill. A provider gets your solar buy the cheap power monthly. provider puts a solar system incentives. This is dirty, expensive, on your roof for a low upfront cost, and you pay a monthly and getting 5% more expensive every year. Why It's So Great fee to lease the system. You get electricity dirt-cheap. Homeowners find the trade-off of the deep discount for their solar incentives worth it. They prefer the simplicity of a single low price tag to managing complex incentives for decades. • STATES WITH AVAILABLE PRE-PAID PPAS How to Get It Pre-paid PPAS are only available in some U.S. states right now. Call your state legislators and demand good solar incentives for homeowners in your state. That's when pre-paid solar PPAS will become available there. BONUS HACKS! Tell your gas bill to go frack itself. Go full frontal. After going solar, buy electric space heaters and you can The reason industrial washing machines are always front-loaders is eliminate your monthly natural gas bill, too. Then, if you get an because they're gentler on clothes (no agitator), use a third of the electric car like a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf, you'll be getting water, and wring water out of clothes better at the end. This means electricity, heat, and transportation-all from the sun. reduced drying time, which can significantly lower your electric bill, because dryers can be a huge energy hog in your house. One Block Off the Grid SOURCES: SAMPLE OF HOMEOWNERS' AVERAGE UTILITY BILLS BEFORE AND AFTER SOLAR PRE-PAID PPA, LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION THE SMART, NEW WAY TO Go SOLAR HTTP://1BOG.ORG 00