How Can I Save on Prepaid Electricity?

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Are you finding that no matter what energy-saving habits you practice at home, you still can’t lower your monthly electricity bill? It might be time to see if your energy provider offers a prepaid electricity plan, which requires customers to pay a fixed cost at the beginning of each month, the amount of which is determined by the customer, in exchange for a set amount of electricity. Prepaid electricity plans allow customers to stick to their own monthly budget as opposed to finding out how much they owe based on their usage at the end of the month. They also promote energy conservation by providing real-time insight into how much energy is used on a daily basis and incentivizing customers to stay within their budgeted energy amount. Read below to learn about ways you can save money on your prepaid electricity costs.

How to Save Money and Energy on a Prepaid Electricity Plan

There are many free and low-cost ways to save energy on a daily basis and drive your prepaid electricity costs down in a short period of time. Whether it’s utilizing your programmable thermostat or relying on fans instead of air conditioning to cool and warm your home, Payless Power will make sure that you use way less energy than you were before. Learn about how you can save energy and money when you sign up for a prepaid electricity plan.

1. Program your thermostat.

The heating and cooling of homes is a major contributor to the high cost of the prepaid electricity bill each month. However, if we make the right adjustments to how we manipulate our thermostats, there is an opportunity for considerable savings. According to Energy Star, adjusting your programmable thermostat to run at higher temperatures while you are at work can cut your electricity bill by $180 each year. You can also set the temperature on your programmable thermostat to be a few degrees higher or lower while you sleep, guaranteeing easy savings. A general energy savings tip is to run things a bit warmer at home during hot months or a bit cooler during the winter months.

2. Upgrade your bulbs.

Replace burned-out light bulbs with energy-efficient ones. LED bulbs are the most efficient on the market, can last up to 50 times as long as an incandescent bulb, and convert 80-90% of their energy into light. Non-efficient light bulbs can only convert around 20% of their energy, with the other 80% emitted as heat, which raises the temperature within homes. Switching out even a few of the most commonly used lights with energy-efficient bulbs will have a major impact on saving money on your prepaid electricity bill.

3. Bring the breeze inside.

Open your windows to allow the natural breeze to cool your home. This works well for beating the heat at night when the temperature starts to dip. You can also use ceiling fans to cool down your rooms while using considerably less electricity than the air conditioner. Remember, fans do not change the temperature of a room; they merely circulate cool air. So unless someone is in the room when a fan is being used, don’t turn them on, and always be sure to turn them off when you leave; otherwise, you are wasting money.

4. Not using it? Unplug it!

Microwaves, cell phones, laptop chargers, and other small appliances can generate heat and use electricity when not in use. This electricity consumption is known as vampire energy and costs Americans roughly $19 billion each year and individual households several hundred dollars each year. As you plug in your devices to be operated or charged, use a power strip to connect all of them to the same source of energy. When you are done using it, turn the power strip off to cut the power of all the electronics. This simple act will allow you to see a five to ten percent drop in monthly prepaid electricity costs.

5. Use the dishwasher.

Given the amount of energy used by dishwashers and other large appliances, it may seem that the best choice is to rely on hand washing. However, washing dishes by hand likely costs you more money as many people leave water running, consuming energy to heat it while wasting water. Though dishwashers require a lot of water to operate, they can use it more efficiently to clean. Additionally, the temperatures that dishwashers can reach are much greater than can be achieved by hand washing, thus more effectively sanitizing your dishes. Note that the electricity consumption dishwashers engage in requires its use to be maximized, so make sure you refrain from running it until it is full.

Save Energy and Money with Prepaid Electricity Today!

By implementing the energy-efficient habits described above, you will be well on your way to saving energy and money on your prepaid electricity bill. Remember, a prepaid electricity plan, with its month-to-month and no deposit structure, is meant to offer flexibility, so if you find that you are using more electricity than you budgeted for during the warmer or cooler months, you can always replenish your prepaid electricity balance. Save energy and money with a prepaid electricity plan today!

By Payless Power

Payless Power is a thought leader in the energy industry, focusing on technology, innovation, and accessibility. The company's expertise includes the Texas energy grid, infrastructure improvements, weatherization safeguards, and the advancement of clean, renewable resources. Since 2005, Payless Power has provided energy solutions to residences and businesses across the Lone Star state.

If you’ve been following the news, you’ll know that this winter is threatening to be a dark one. Higher stages of load shedding and the impact of electricity tariff increases means that many of us will be left in the dark and deeply out of pocket.

Saving on electricity can, however, soften the blow.

In this article, we share ways to reduce electricity in the biggest energy use categories typical of a household. Drawing on the well-researched resources from the Let’s Act campaign, we round up six simple and practical ways to save electricity (and your wallet) this winter. The last tip is our favourite, but we might be a bit biased. Read on to see why.

1. Insulate your home

As much as 40% of heat loss takes place through a home’s roof so ceiling insulation is a good place to start if you want to save on electricity. It’s estimated that insulation can make your home up to 5°C warmer in winter, saving up to 16% of the electricity you need annually. Going a step further by insulating your water pipes and using a geyser blanket can also reduce your costs by R500 or more a year.

If you can’t invest right now, make sure that you conserve your body heat with warm clothes and direct heat through things like the safe use of water bottles.

For more information, please visit acrel.

2. Reduce time spent on water heating

When looking for ways to save electricity, adjusting how you use hot water can make a significant difference. By simply dialing down your geyser’s temperature from 70°C to 60°C you can see a 5% reduction in your electricity bill. Using lower heating settings and skipping pre-wash cycles on your washing machine and dishwasher can reduce their hot water usage by 20%.

3. Choose the right appliances (and use them in the right way)

Energy-efficient appliances make the world of difference – to sustainability efforts and your energy usage. For appliances that work smarter and not harder, have a look at the South African Energy Efficiency website to explore the different energy efficiencies of appliances. For smart energy habits try out these handy household tips:

• Put bottles of water in your fridge and freezer. Water bottles ‘hold on to the cold’ so that your fridge and freezer don’t have to work as hard. This is also handy in preserving your food during those frustrating extended outages.
• Always do a full load of laundry but don’t overfill your washing machine. It takes the same amount of electricity to wash a full load of laundry as it does to wash a few items. Follow the appliance guidelines.
• Reinvest in the saying, ‘Now we’re cooking with gas’ by trying your hand at more efficient, load shedding safe gas cooking. Switching to gas from electricity also cuts the carbon footprint of stove-top cooking by about half.

4. Unplug electronic ‘energy vampires’

According to Direct Energy, watching TV or playing video games for an average amount of time, can use as much as 55kWh per month. Devices like your media equipment, gaming consoles and printers also draw energy through standby power - even when they’re not in use. Consider unplugging these devices when you aren’t using them as an additional way to save on your household electricity use.

5. Get your lighting right

Although lighting only contributes to about 10% of your household electricity consumption, good quality Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights can save up to 80 – 90% in electricity usage, in comparison to traditional incandescent lightbulbs and last up to 50 times longer making the switch worth it.

6. Switch to prepaid electricity

According to the Let’s Act campaign, studies have shown that greater ‘real-time’ awareness of electricity usage through prepaid metering encourages people to drop their consumption by about 10-12%. If you are already a prepaid meter user, how you choose to recharge can also give you more value for money. For example, if Enbaya Prepaid Meters customers recharge using the Autotility feature, only 5.85% goes towards what is called a channel fee compared to a 10% fee at retail outlets and a whopping 12.85% if they were to recharge through a bank cash deposit. This difference means more actual units of electricity for the customer.

By combining smart, responsible utility sub-metering with smarter energy use habits we can at the very least counter the effects of price increases and in the longer term, start the journey to living more sustainably.

Our journey started more than twenty years ago, helping our customers take power into their hands through prepaid submetering. If you’re considering prepaid utility sub-metering, we would be delighted to walk the path with you too. Contact us today.

For more prepaid energy meter information, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.