Everyone uses electricity for many different ways everyday. Those little bits of energy used here and there can add up to lots of dollars on your utility bill. Saving electricity and decreasing your utility costs is one of the easiest things you can do. Based on the savings chart at MichaelBlueJay.com, these are some of the savings you could realize.

1. Turn off the lights. Simply turning off the lights when you leave a room can quickly add up to savings on your electric bill. It is a habit that is easily taught to young children, but sometimes harder to learn as an adult. Potential savings: $274.00 a year.
2. Hang your clothes to dry. If you have the option of hanging your clothes outside on a clothesline you can save a bundle by not using the electric dryer. You can also buy wooden clothes racks for drying clothes inside your home during cold or wet weather. Potential annual savings: $196.00 per year.
3. Dry full loads. Instead of washing many small loads of laundry, let them accumulate a little longer so that you can wash full loads. If you do need to use the dryer for drying, you’ll use less electricity when drying on large load as compared to two small ones.
4. Wash with cold water. If you have an electric hot water heater, switching to all cold water for your laundry can save you some additional electricity. How much you save will depend on many loads of laundry you do each week. Potential savings: $152.00 per year.
5. Turn off the TV. Many people have gotten in the habit of leaving their television on, even when they are no longer watching it. We may think of it as simple background noise, but it is soaking up electricity to keep that screen lit up the whole time. Your television uses at least the same amount of energy as a standard light bulb, so treat it the same as turning off the lights.
6. Dishwasher efficiency. Only run full loads of dishes in your dishwasher. In addition, eliminating the heated dry time in your dishwasher can save you plenty of energy. The drying requires 1000 watts more electricity than the wash cycle. Air drying or towel drying will save you at least 75% on your dishwasher’s energy usage.
7. Unplug electronics. You may not realize that a lot of electronic items continue to draw electricity, even when they are not being used. Simply being plugged into an electrical outlet will create a draw. Unplugging small appliances, printers and radios when they aren’t in use can save on your electricity use. These kinds of standby power are said to be equal to about 5% of your electric bill.
8. Decrease AC use. Keep the thermostat set a few degrees higher during the summer months to save electricity with little effort at all. Leaving it off completely, while you’re gone at work, will help save on the power bill too. Each degree lower you set your thermostat can increase your energy use by 3-4%
9. Decrease oven use. An electric oven requires quite a bit of energy. Use your stove top and microwave for cooking food or reheating items whenever possible to conserve on your household energy. For each hour of oven use you eliminate, it can save you 24 cents. That may not seem like much, but those pennies add up over a year’s time.
10. Motion detector lights. Using motion detector lights for your exterior lighting can keep you from wasting electricity by leaving those outdoor lights on when you aren’t at home. They’ll come on when you need them and shut-off automatically when they are no longer needed. Decreasing your exterior lighting by 10% could save you over $70 per year.

With no major investments, just some changes of habits, you can save yourself hundreds of dollars in utility bills and decrease your waste of energy.