See how much electricity your appliances use:
Your Guide to Electrical Usage in Your Home (PDF)
Estimate how much electricity your appliances use in order to identify the connection between your appliance use and the amount of your electric bills.
Identify the cause of a spike in your electric bills:
- Increased household size or more time spent at home - More laundry, showers, etc.
- Well-water pump needs fixing - Problems sometimes occur to make the motor run continuously.
- Leaking electric hot water tank - Check to see if there's water at the base.
- Cold weather - If you have electric heat, you may see a spike in electric use. This could happen any time of year in the mountains.
Identify the cause of your regularly high electric bills:
- Electric hot water heater
- Electric heat for your living space
- Refrigerator more than 13 years old
- More than one refrigerator
- Chest freezer
- Electric clothes dryer
- Big household - lots of laundry, showers, etc.
- Dehumidifier
- Water bed
- Hot tub
Take action to replace your inefficient heating system or appliance:
Incentives may be available to help you take action. Contact Efficiency Vermont for free technical advice and to see if you qualify. In 2008, the following incentives are available to households meeting criteria for energy savings and cost-effectiveness:
- Up to $1,000 to air seal and insulate an electrically heated home
- Up to $1,000 to switch from electric heat to an efficient natural gas central boiler, furnace, or space heater
- Up to $500 to switch from electric hot water to an efficient natural gas hot water heater
- $100 to replace an older, inefficient refrigerator with an ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerator
- $100 to convert from an electric clothes dryer to a natural gas dryer
To receive an incentive, you must properly disable or dispose of your old heating system or appliance. Higher incentive levels may be available to households in Geographically targeted areas. Click here to learn more.
Learn more about reducing your water heating bill:
Your Guide to Your Electric Hot Water Heater (PDF)
Learn how much your hot water may cost as well as ways to save money by lowering your electricity use.
