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Save Money By Running Appliances/Recharge At Night

Jason Yang
Jason Yang
Jason Yang is the founder and director of Digital Studios, a web design and development company. He also serves as a business representative on the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board in Bethesda, Maryland.
published Apr 25, 2011
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Utility companies generally charge higher rates during peak hours, during the day when the load is highest with everyone awake and using their stuff. During off-peak hours at night the rates are quite a bit lower. Here are some tips to take advantages of the lower evening rates to save money on your utility bills!

Check out your bill or utility company’s website to find the posted rates for peak and off-peak hours. For help understanding your bill, check out our guide on how to read your gas or electric utility bill.

Simply running your dishwasher at night instead of during the day can save on electricity, gas, and water costs. Hopefully your bedroom is far enough away from your kitchen so the noise is not an issue.

It may not be practical to run laundry while you’re sleeping because you have to transfer the load from the washer to the dryer, you can still time the wash to end right before you go to bed and then load everything into the dryer for a cheaper cycle overnight. Hopefully your clothes don’t get too wrinkled sitting in the dryer for half the night, but this way at least you get a partial cost savings on the utilities. You could also compare whether the washer or the dryer would give you the most savings and run the washer at night and toss everything into the dryer in the morning. Whether it’s an issue having your clothes sit overnight while moist is another issue.

Using last week’s article on how much it costs to do laundry, you can easily compare your savings when running your laundry during the day in peak hours or at night in off-peak hours.

Your gadgets can take advantage of these cost savings as well by primarily plugging in and charging at night during lower electricity rates.

Here are some additional great articles and resources on utility costs, savings, and other fun related info:

  • Four Easy Ways Of Saving Electricity and Reducing Your Utilities Bill
  • The 5 Devices that Burn Through Your Power Bill
  • Do You Save Energy Even When You’re Not Paying the Bill?
  • How to Calculate Possible Energy Star Money Savings
  • What Else Can I Do to Bring Down Bills in the Summer?
  • How to Monitor Your Home Utilities Usage Using Webcams and Google Android
  • Water Heaters Inside Your Homes to Provide Energy
  • Save Money with a One Month Crash Utilities Diet

(Images: IKEA)

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