Tips on How to Reduce Hydro Bills if You Have Time-of-Use pricing

It’s one thing to try and save money on your hydro bill, but it’s entirely different to do that when you have time-of-use pricing.

This article will give you tips on how to do that, but first, we need to discuss time-of-use pricing.

What Is Time-of-Use Pricing Exactly?

In the simplest of terms, time-of-use (TOU) pricing entails that you’re paying your hydro bills according to a set rate of kilowatts per hour. The prices are different depending on the time of day and the season you’re currently in. There’s a significant difference in pricing between summer and winter.

Most provinces in Canada offer TOU pricing as an option, but in Ontario, it’s mandatory. The amount you have to pay is calculated by the smart meter that you have installed in your home.

As there are a lot of differences in the pricing, thispage can help you see the exact prices for each hour in the day depending on the season.

How to Reduce Your Hydro Bills

●        Find out how much you’re spending

The first thing that you need to do is investigate your bills thoroughly. You want to find out exactly how much you’re paying out when you’re spending it, and on what is causing the consumption. Once you do that, it will be easier to stop turning on the appliances that consume a lot and which you don’t need at the times the electricity is the most expensive. If you want to find out how much energy each appliance uses, you can check an online tool that’s most likely offered by your energy supplier.

●        Use a programmable thermostat

A lot of the power goes to heating (usually about 60% of the annual hydro bill is heating), but many people overspend in that department because they leave the thermostat on for no reason. With a programmable thermostat, you can choose at which times the furnace will work.

●        More ways to save on heating

As for other ways to save on heating, you can also lower the temperature in empty rooms. Furthermore, there’s no need to turn the thermostat as high as possible, because that won’t heat the home faster; it will just give you a bigger bill to pay.

●        Switch to LED bulbs

It might sound insignificant, but there’s still a big difference between regular bulbs and LED bulbs. LED bulbs are a lot more cost-efficient as they use less power and last much longer.

●        Don’t use the ‘big spenders’ on peak hours

Consult the page we gave you to find the exact peak hours when your rates are the highest and avoid using the big spender during those times. By big spenders, we mean the dishwasher, washing machine, etc. You can also start drying your clothes and dishes the good old-fashioned way that doesn’t include you spending even more electricity.

The Bottom Line

That’s about that – there’s not much that you can do to save on power and thus reduce your hydro bills. There are some other smaller things that you can do, but by doing the things we talked about here, you won’t have to do much more in the way of sacrificing your comfort.

How to Prepare Your Yard and Garden for Spring

Spring is almost here, and it’s high time to start preparing your yard and garden and get it ready for the season of rebirth.

There’s indeed much work to do if you want to get everything back to green in time. The winter is always harsh on our yards, mostly because it’s been lying dead under snow and ice for months.

Your lot won’t be back to its fullest glory unless you invest some time and effort to make it so. And with that in mind, we wanted to give you some advice on how to approach this.

Clean Everything Up

The first thing that you have to do is to clean everything. You were probably expecting this, but it’s still a task that has to be done well.

A lot of time has passed, and there’s certainly a lot of leaves, twigs, branches, dead growth in general, and maybe even some garbage. All of that has to be removed, and the best way to do it is with an air blower and collect the remainder with a rake.

Prepare the Ground

If you’re looking to grow some plants, flowers or shrubs, you’ll need to prepare the ground first. Preparation involves several steps.

First, you need to properly aerate the ground to enable a more successful growth of plants.

Then you need to rake the ground and thus make it receptive for growing, as it should be done for most types of plants outside your home.

After that’s done, you can fertilize the area, according to the type of growth desired. Even feed the grass sections. You should also use a pre-emergent and weed-killer. A weed-killer is vital to prevent all the nasty bugs that can destroy plants and grass.

The final step is to plant the seeds of everything desired. However, each thing has its place in time, which is why, for example, you shouldn’t seed for grass until fall. If you can’t wait to spruce up the area, then it’s better to use sod.

Most vegetables, on the other hand, won’t overgrow at this time, so you can start them inside and then replant them outside when the weather improves. But some other plants like bulbs and perennials are much more natural and can be grown quickly; you only need to water them enough.

Take Care of the Trees

Trees are naturally different, and they thus deserve some bit of individual attention. If you’re not familiar with how to trim and cut them, it’s best to hire an arborist to check the trees thoroughly and trim everything that should be cut back.

It can often happen that a branch of the tree is dead, and when that happens, you need to cut that branch down. If you don’t, it can easily break off and could accidentally hurt someone.

So, that’s about it. There aren’t many different steps that you need to take; it’s all about doing it carefully, with love, attention, and making sure that you’re doing everything you can for your yard and garden to look great when the nice weather starts.