With the rising costs of electricity, people are becoming more and more concerned about saving money on their electric bill. As people become more aware of the environmental impact they are having on the planet, they are becoming more willing to try to reduce their electricity consumption. Whatever your reasons, there are plenty of ways to conserve electricity and save money on your electric bill.

On of the biggest things I do to save money on electricity is to take advantage of natural light. If the sun is shining in the window, I do not need to turn a light on. If I want to read a book or write something down, I generally sit in a chair by a window, to use the sun as my light, instead of the light-bulb in the lamp. We have one bathroom in the house with a window. I try to use that one throughout the day, so that the lights in the other bathrooms are not always being flipped on and off. When I have piles of laundry to be put away, I try to do it during the day when the sun is coming in. If I wait until it is dark, I end up having to turn lights on in every bedroom to see what I am doing.

Another way to save on electricity is to cook more than one thing in your oven at a time. Baking muffins for breakfast, a frozen pizza for lunch, and rolls at dinner is not an effective way to use your oven. When I cook dinner at night, I will also bake muffins at the same time. This way our breakfast for the next day is already done when we get up in the morning. And more importantly this saves energy. I also try to plan my menus so that I am using my oven more efficiently. We like to have glazed carrots for dinner, but this small dish of carrots takes one hour to bake. I try to plan this side dish on a night that I am already going to be using the oven for a long time, instead of a night that I don't need the oven for anything else.

Speaking of ovens, toaster ovens are great appliances. As are microwaves. Smaller appliances use less energy to do the same job. There is less space to heat and it doesn't take as long to cook things in smaller appliances. Saving money on other appliances is easy as well. Only run your dishwasher or washing machine when they are full and this will save electricity, which in turn saves you money.

We also don't run our dryer very often. I generally only use the dryer once or twice a week. The rest of the time we line dry everything. This saves a lot of energy, especially for us since we do a lot of laundry.

When it does come time to purchase new appliances, purchase the most energy efficient models that you can afford. This will save you money every month. Is your freezer close to empty? Then it won't be running as efficiently as it could. Freezers run most efficiently if they are at least 3/4 full. If you have extra space in your freezer, fill up some rinsed out milk jugs and place them on the bottom of the freezer. This will reduce the amount of energy used each month, as well as provide water for your family in case of an emergency that leaves the tap water undrinkable.

Consider switching to compact flourescent light bulbs. These bulbs do save a lot of energy over time and are so much better for the environment. You can purchase these in bulk at wholesale stores for much cheaper than your local retail store sells them. While you might not want these in every lamp, even changing just a few in lights that tend to get left on a lot, can make a big difference in your electricity bill.

Another thing you can do to save on electricity is to wrap your hot water heater in an energy saving blanket. You can purchase these for around $15 and they are very easy to place on your water heater. They insulate the tank so that the water heater wll maintain the temperature longer without it running all the time. Speaking of your hot water heater, turn it down to 120 degrees. This temperature will still kill germs, however your hot water heater will not have to work so hard (use as much energy) to keep it hot. Keep your showers short and it will use less water than a bath or long shower. Also, do you need to wash your hands in hot water? It is the soap that kills the germs, so generally cold water will work fine. The same with your laundry. Washing in cold water will still be effective on most loads.

The biggest energy users in your home are the heating and cooling systems. Keeping your heat low in the winter and keeping the air conditioner high in the summer will save electricity all year. For every degree that you lower your thermostat in the winter, it will reduce your energy bill by 2%. This can really add up! Also, keeping the filters on your furnace and AC clean will keep them running more efficiently. If you live somewhere that the nights get cool, turn the AC off and open the windows. In the morning, as the day heats up, close up the windows and turn the AC back on.

Have you ever heard of energy vampires? These are items in your home that are using energy, even when they aren't on. Things like the computer, TV, VCR, appliances, etc use small amounts of energy at all times so that they can be ready to turn on at any moment. Some things like the coffee pot that only gets used in the morning, or the treadmill that gets used once a week can easily be unplugged when not in use. Some things that might need to be reset if you unplug them are going to be harder to deal with.

Plugging things into a power strip can make it easier to unplug them. Consider plugging the television, DVD and VHS players into one power strip. Then at night when everyone is going to be sleeping for a long time, you can turn the power strip off. Then these energy suckers won't be wasting electricity all night long. We do this for our computer. We have the computer, and all the accessories, as well as the desk lamp on a power strip that we turn off each night. When we began doing this we noticed a drop in our electricity bill the next month.

If you are leaving town for awhile, consider unplugging everything you possibly can. Why do you need the TV to be on standby when you are gone for a week? Do the alarm clocks need to be plugged in when no one will be reading them? Yes, it can take some time to reset these items when you get home, but 10 minutes of your energy upon arriving home, can save you many dollars on your electric bill.

Finally, consider having an energy audit done. Sask Energy has an online energy audit you can fill out here. Energy audits can be very helpful in pointing areas where you could save electricity. I would venture to guess that almost everyone can reduce their electric consumption somehow. And the less electricity you use, the lower your monthly bills are going to be. Using less energy directly translates into saving money.