Electricity costs in Canada have been climbing steadily, with some provinces seeing increases of 30-50% over the past five years. When our team started seriously tracking our utility expenses, we were shocked to discover how much we were spending on electricity – and even more shocked to learn how much of it was completely unnecessary.
Over the past year, we’ve tested dozens of strategies to reduce our collective electric bills. The result? We’ve cut our combined electricity costs by an average of 40% without sacrificing comfort or convenience. These aren’t extreme measures or expensive upgrades. These are practical, tested strategies that actually work in Canadian homes.
Here’s exactly what we did.
Understanding Your Electric Bill: The Foundation
1. Read Your Actual Usage, Not Just the Total
Most people only look at the dollar amount on their electric bill. Start reading the kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage. This tells you how much electricity you’re actually consuming, separate from rate changes or fees. Track this number monthly to see if your conservation efforts are working.
2. Identify Your Peak Usage Times
Many provinces have time-of-use pricing where electricity costs more during peak hours (typically 7-11 AM and 5-9 PM). Check if your utility offers this pricing. If so, shifting your usage to off-peak times can save 20-30% immediately.
3. Request an Energy Audit
Many Canadian utilities offer free or subsidized home energy audits. A professional will identify exactly where you’re wasting energy. We discovered issues we never would have found ourselves, and the fixes paid for themselves within months.
Quick Wins: Immediate Savings
4. Adjust Your Thermostat by Just 2 Degrees
Lowering your thermostat by 2°C in winter or raising it by 2°C in summer reduces heating and cooling costs by about 10%. You’ll barely notice the temperature difference, but you’ll definitely notice the savings. Use a programmable thermostat to do this automatically when you’re sleeping or away.
5. Unplug “Vampire” Devices
Electronics draw power even when turned off. Coffee makers, phone chargers, gaming consoles, and cable boxes are major culprits. We use power bars for entertainment centers and turn them off when not in use. This alone saved us about 5-10% monthly.
6. Switch to LED Bulbs Everywhere
If you haven’t already, replace every incandescent and CFL bulb with LEDs. Yes, they cost more upfront ($3-8 per bulb), but they use 75% less energy and last 15-25 times longer. We replaced 30 bulbs in our homes and saw immediate savings of $15-25 monthly combined.
7. Use Cold Water for Laundry
Heating water for laundry accounts for about 90% of a washing machine’s energy use. Switch to cold water for everything except heavily soiled items. Modern detergents work excellently in cold water. This single change cut our laundry-related electricity costs by more than half.
8. Air Dry Dishes and Clothes
Skip the heated drying cycle on your dishwasher and open the door to let dishes air dry. Hang clothes to dry when possible, especially in summer. We installed a simple retractable clothesline on our balcony and a drying rack indoors. During Canadian winters, this also adds humidity to dry indoor air.
9. Clean or Replace HVAC Filters Monthly
Dirty filters make your heating and cooling system work harder, using more electricity. Check filters monthly and clean or replace them. This $5-15 monthly expense saves us $20-40 in electricity costs and extends the life of our HVAC systems.
Kitchen and Appliances: Major Impact Areas
10. Keep Your Fridge and Freezer Full
Full fridges and freezers maintain temperature better than empty ones. If you don’t have enough food, fill empty space with containers of water. This thermal mass helps maintain cold temperatures when you open the door, reducing how hard the compressor works.
11. Check Fridge and Freezer Seals
Damaged door seals let cold air escape constantly. Test by closing the door on a dollar bill – if you can pull it out easily, the seal needs replacing. This simple fix can save 5-10% on the electricity your fridge uses, which is significant since refrigerators run 24/7.
12. Use the Right Size Burner on Your Stove
Using a large burner for a small pot wastes energy. Match pot size to burner size. Use lids when cooking to trap heat and cook food faster. Consider using your microwave, slow cooker, or instant pot for small meals – they use significantly less energy than your oven.
13. Batch Your Oven Use
If you’re baking something, maximize the oven by cooking multiple items at once. Make a complete meal, double recipes to freeze extras, or bake several things consecutively using the preheated oven. Each time you turn on the oven costs money – make it count.
14. Defrost Food in the Fridge, Not the Microwave
Plan ahead and move frozen items to the fridge the night before. This uses zero electricity and actually helps your fridge maintain temperature (frozen items keep things cold while thawing). Microwaving to defrost uses unnecessary energy.
Heating and Cooling: The Biggest Opportunities
15. Use Ceiling Fans Strategically
In summer, run ceiling fans counterclockwise to create a cooling breeze. In winter, reverse them to clockwise (on low) to push warm air down from the ceiling. This helps distribute heat and cool more evenly, reducing HVAC usage.
16. Close Vents and Doors in Unused Rooms
Why heat or cool rooms you’re not using? Close vents and doors to spare bedrooms, storage rooms, or basements. This concentrates your HVAC efforts on lived-in spaces and can reduce overall usage by 10-20%.
17. Use Window Treatments Effectively
In summer, close blinds and curtains during the hottest part of the day to block heat. In winter, open south-facing curtains during sunny days to let passive solar heat in, then close them at night to insulate. This free strategy significantly reduces HVAC load.
18. Seal Air Leaks Around Doors and Windows
Use weatherstripping on doors and caulk around windows to prevent drafts. Check around pipes, vents, and electrical outlets too. We spent $50 on weatherstripping and caulk and reduced our heating costs by about 15%. The payback was immediate.
19. Add Insulation to Your Attic
Poor attic insulation is one of the biggest energy wasters in Canadian homes. Check if your insulation meets current standards (R-50 or higher for most of Canada). Adding insulation is a DIY-friendly project or a worthwhile contractor expense that pays for itself in 2-3 years.
Smart Technology and Habits
20. Install a Programmable or Smart Thermostat
A programmable thermostat ($30-100) or smart thermostat ($150-250) automatically adjusts temperature when you’re away or sleeping. We programmed ours to reduce heating/cooling by 4°C during work hours and overnight. This single device saves us $200-400 annually per household.
21. Use Timers for Outdoor Lights and Decorations
Instead of leaving porch lights or decorative lights on all night, use timers ($10-20) or smart plugs to automatically turn them off at midnight or turn on only when needed. We were shocked to discover we’d been burning outdoor lights 16 hours daily when we only needed them for 4-5 hours.
22. Take Shorter Showers
If you have an electric water heater, shower length directly impacts your bill. Reducing shower time by just 2-3 minutes per person saves significant electricity. We installed $15 low-flow showerheads that maintain good pressure while using less hot water.
23. Run Full Loads Only
Wait until you have full loads before running the dishwasher or washing machine. Half-loads still use nearly the same amount of energy as full loads. This simple discipline reduced our appliance-related electricity use by about 20%.
24. Turn Off Lights When Leaving Rooms
This seems obvious, but many people leave lights on “just in case” they return soon. Make it a habit to flip the switch every time you leave. With LED bulbs, the electricity used in one second of turning on a light is negligible compared to leaving it on for minutes or hours.
25. Educate Everyone in Your Household
The biggest energy waster is simply not thinking about it. Have a family meeting about electricity conservation. Get everyone on board with these strategies. When our households made this a shared priority rather than one person’s crusade, compliance and results improved dramatically.
What Actually Made the Biggest Difference
After a year of testing, here’s what moved the needle most for us:
Top 5 Impact Strategies:
- Programmable thermostat + temperature adjustment (saved 20-25%)
- Sealing air leaks and adding insulation (saved 10-15%)
- Switching to LEDs + turning off lights consistently (saved 5-8%)
- Cold water laundry + air drying (saved 3-5%)
- Unplugging vampire devices (saved 3-5%)
Together, these five strategies accounted for about 35-40% of our total savings.
What Didn’t Work (Save Your Money)
Strategies we tested that weren’t worth it:
- Expensive “energy-saving” devices from infomercials: Most are scams or provide negligible savings
- Replacing functioning appliances with “efficient” models: Unless your appliance is 15+ years old or broken, the upfront cost doesn’t justify the savings
- Extreme temperature settings: Setting your thermostat to 15°C in winter or 28°C in summer saves money but makes life miserable – not sustainable
- Obsessing over small devices: Unplugging your digital clock saves pennies per year – focus on big energy users
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much can the average Canadian household realistically save on electricity?
A: Most households can reduce their electric bill by 20-40% through behavioral changes and low-cost improvements. If your current bill is $150/month, that’s $30-60 monthly savings or $360-720 annually. Higher savings are possible if you’re currently very wasteful or willing to invest in major upgrades.
Q: Are solar panels worth it in Canada?
A: It depends on your province. Net metering programs, available sunlight, electricity rates, and installation costs vary widely. In some provinces like Ontario or Alberta, solar can pay for itself in 10-15 years. In others, it may never break even. Get multiple quotes and do the math carefully for your specific situation.
Q: What temperature should I set my thermostat to?
A: For optimal comfort and efficiency, try 20-21°C when home in winter and 17-18°C when sleeping or away. In summer, aim for 24-25°C. Every degree lower (winter) or higher (summer) saves about 5% on heating/cooling costs. Find your personal comfort zone and stick with it.
Q: Will turning off lights constantly burn them out faster?
A: Not with LED bulbs. Old incandescent bulbs were sensitive to frequent switching, but LEDs are designed to be turned on and off frequently without affecting lifespan. Always turn off LED lights when leaving a room – you’ll save energy without shortening bulb life.
Q: My electricity rates keep increasing. Are these savings even worth it?
A: Yes! When rates increase, your conservation efforts become even more valuable. If you cut consumption by 40% and rates increase by 20%, you’re still way ahead compared to doing nothing. Conservation insulates you from rate hikes and gives you control over something you can’t otherwise change.
Start Today
You don’t need to implement all 25 strategies at once. Pick three that seem easiest for your situation and start there. Once those become habits, add three more. Within a few months, you’ll have transformed your electricity usage and your bill.
The money you save isn’t just money – it’s stress relief, environmental impact reduction, and financial control. Our collective 40% savings meant an extra $500-800 per household annually. That’s a vacation, an emergency fund boost, or debt payoff.
More importantly, we stopped feeling helpless about rising electricity costs. We took control. You can too.
Which strategy will you start with today?