68 F is an ideal temperature of thermostat during winter season. 5. Water heaters also utilized a large amount of energy. Therefore, try to limit its use. It is the second largest energy consumer after cooling/heating system of your house. Avoid the use of hot water to wash your clothes because it is the job of detergents to eradicate germs from clothes. By using small electric burners when cooking gives us better savings than large burners. It also keeps our heating system less stressful and helps in maintaining the temperature of the house. Next, lower down the thermostat of your refrigerator as well. Using a fireplace to warm up the house is quite cheaper than using the heating systems. Each month your electricity bills give you a shock? And you always think of keeping a close check on electricity usage? It's quite simple if you really want to 'audit' your electricity expenses. Similar to an official audit, your home energy audit will give you a clear understanding of the usage per appliance, the peak hours of electricity consumption and cost-benefit analysis. Your house should by your principal residence. If you have applied for improvement tax credits, you could be decreasing your income tax amount by receiving certain amount of money to each of specific energy-efficiency improvement items installed or going to be installed in your house. Following are the energy-efficient home improvement items appropriate for the tax credits. Sure you can't produce electricity yourself but there are some changes that you can make to cut your energy costs. If you just calculate the average amount you spend per annum to pay off your electricity bills, you'll get an approximate figure of $1600. Surprised? If you are thinking that after spending whole day at office how come your house consumes this much electricity, then the doubt is justified to some extent but let's just take a look at what causes high bills. You can save about 5% of electric bill on every 1 C. Therefore, always maintain your thermostat at lower temperatures. You can keep it lower during sleeping times or when you are out of home to save more and more money. 68 F is the best advised temperature for thermostats during winter season. 2. Water heaters also make use of a large amount of energy.