4 Products That Will Save You Hundreds On Your Utility Bills
If you're looking to save money every month, your family's home electric bill is a good place to start. Smart, green tech updates will save a lot of electricity  and money  over the course of a year. Even small changes add up quickly. From home heating to lighting, I've compiled a list of four simple tech upgrades for your home that will save you a combined 225 per year on your utility bills. Most can be installed yourself with a little bit of handyman knowhow. And, once they're installed, these devices are smart enough to take care of racking up the savings. Average savings 130 per year*, One of the most powerful ways to save money on your home heating bills in the winter and electricity bills in the summer is to install a smart thermostat like the Honeywell Lyric. It takes indoor and outdoor humidity and temperature into account when cooling or heating your house, making temperature settings feel more consistent from season to season. You can even have the Lyric track your smartphone's location, automatically turning the AC or furnace off when you're away and turning them on when you return. And, of course, you can always control settings manually on the thermostat itself or via the included Lyric app. The Honeywell Lyric Wi-Fi Enabled Thermostat is currently available for purchase through amazon.com for 239.01. Be sure to check with your local utility to see if any special rebates are available to lower the price even further. Average savings 10 per year per switch*, Does it feel like there's one room of the house where the lights are always on, even though no one ever seems to be in there? Fight back against wasteful lighting with the Lutron Maestro occupancy sensor switch. It's a replacement for a standard light switch that senses when people enter and leave a room from up to 30 feet away, turning the lights on and off as needed. Advanced XCT technology helps the switch know when you're moving around a room, so you won't get accidentally left in the dark. Smarter yet, if the Maestro sensor detects enough natural light, the switch stays off. I like it for guest bathrooms, utility rooms and other places people typically stumble around looking for the light switch. You can find the Lutron MS-OPS2-WH Maestro 250 Watt Occupancy Sensor Switch in a wide range of designer colors at amazon.com starting at 23.85. A version with a dimmer is also available starting at 34.98. Average savings 75 per year*, Your home entertainment center is likely hiding a large number of energy vampires  devices like DVD players and video game consoles that suck up large amounts of electricity even when they're not in use. The Belkin Conserve Smart Power Strip fights back against this problem in a unique way by offering a remote switch that can turn up to eight connected devices 100 off from 60 feet away. Just as importantly, this strip also offers two always-on slots for anything that truly needs power 24/7. The Conserve has 1,000 joules of surge protection and is backed with a limited one-year warranty and 100,000 connected equipment warranty. You can find the Belkin Conserve AV Switch for sale at amazon.com for 51.36. Average Savings 9.88 per year per bulb*, If you're still using energy-wasting incandescent bulbs, the time is right to consider trying LED home lighting technology. This three-way bulb from Cree puts out up to 1,620 lumens of soft warm white light 2700K. The color is better than with older CFL bulbs, and the energy savings are better too. Just note that these three-way bulbs have an unusual base shape that may not fit smaller fixtures. The regular Cree bulbs have a base that's similar to incandescent bulbs. You can find the Cree 3-Way LED Lightbulb for sale on amazon.com for 27.55 each or a regular 60-watt replacement for 12.95 on amazon.com. They are pricey, but consider that each one will save you approximately 10 per year on your electric bills over the cost of an incandescent. *Savings estimate for the Honeywell Lyric from GreenOhm for Honeywell based on a home located in Newton, NJ. Estimate for the Belkin Conserve based on a TV, DVD Player, VCR, game console, subwoofer and compact stereo on but not active for 19 hours per day at 0.117 per kilowatt hour. Estimate for the Cree LED lightbulb based on use as a substitute for a 100W incandescent. Estimate for the Lutron Occupancy-Sensing Light Switch based on 1,000 wasted hours per year of 100W light. More from Techlicious