Christ Hutchins is all about saving money. In fact, he’s made a career out of it.
“I have a podcast, it’s called All the Hacks,” Hutchins said. “It started out of my passion for just optimizing everything in life. So I’m one of those people with a spreadsheet for everything. I really love getting a good deal on everything from travel to life.”
How to pay less on your monthly energy bill (video)
He offered FingerLakes1.com some tips on how to save on your energy bills, especially during the hot summer months.
“Just replacing the filters on your furnace and air conditioning system can cut back the air conditioner energy consumption by anywhere from 5-15%,” Hutchins explained. “I never really was one to replace filters that often but I now learned that you’re supposed to replace them every month or two.”
He also urges you to take a look at the location in your home where your air conditioning is being monitored.
“Sometimes the room that’s being heated or cooled is not where the thermostat is, so it might not be totally aligned. We found that there were rooms were getting a lot hotter, a lot colder, so we went and we adjusted those vents so the right rooms were getting the right amount of temperature.”
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Use energy at off-peak times
And when it comes to your electric bill, Hutchins says to check out rate plans.
“If there’s a plan that has off-peak rates and you can sort of time-shift your usage and say ok well I’m only going to do laundry and use the dishwasher when we’re in the off-peak energy times. So we do that here, we set our dishwasher to time delay event hough it runs while we sleep, because we want it to run when energy is cheaper.”
Other small things can add up to lower your monthly bill, he says, like lowering your water temperature from 140 degrees to 120 degrees. Also consider investing in a device to track your water and energy consumption.
“Those energy and water companies, a lot of times they offer really big rebates if you buy a device to track your energy or water. If you upgrade to a more energy-efficient washing machine, they’ll have rebates.”
For more of Hutchins’ tips on saving money, click here.
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Rebecca is a veteran multimedia journalist serving as one of our core reporters in the Finger Lakes region. She is responsible for telling stories that matter to every day Upstate New Yorkers. Have a question or lead? Send it to [email protected].