Save Up to 20% on Your Electricity Bill

Electricity bills are getting more and more expensive as we are staying at home more often due to the lockdown for Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is possible for us to save up to 20% or more on our electricity bill. Our electricity bill are usually not more than RM 80 every month even though we have 4 air-conditioners, 2 water heaters, a fridge and an inductor cooker. From my understanding, the bill for our neighbours are usually at the range of RM 100 to RM 150.

Below is some steps that we took to save on our electricity bills:

Use LED light

With the advancement of technology, the current LED light is as good as, if not better than the conventional light bulb. In fact, the LED bulbs and lights are able to save up to 85% of the energy compare to the incandescent lights. It is also more eco-friendly, durable, energy efficient and affordable.

So, my best suggestion is for you to change your lightings to LED lightings when your current lights "give up".

Also, using natural light would help to keep the bill low.

Manage the cooling system.

We are living in a tropical country and most of the time, the temperature in our home would be hot or warm. We would need the air-conditioner to avoid being roasted by the heat. As mentioned earlier, our home have 4 units but it does not contribute a lot to our bills.

We do that by making sure that we set the temperature toward room temperature (aka 25 Deg C) instead of the lowest temperature possible on the air-conditioner unit (16 Deg C). If you turn it to 16 Deg C, your air-con unit will need additional energy to bring down the temperature. But if you keep it at 25 or 26 Deg C, it is still cooling but would not burn your pocket.

An inverter air conditioning unit will be helpful too because it will "stop" when the right temperature is achieved and start again when it is out of a range. This is better than the conventional air conditioner that continue to blow out cool wind no matter what is the temperature.

Also, never forget to service your air conditioner unit from time to time. It helps by making sure that your unit is running at the best conditions.

Electrical appliances

1. Change the old fridge to a new one. Look for the one with 5 Stars rating as these fridges would be more energy saving. Yes, you may pay a bit extra initially, but you will be using it for 10 or even 20 days. The amount of electricity that you would save would be worth more.
2. Just like the air-conditioner, don't turn the water heater to the extreme when you can adjust it with the intensity of the water flow. Running it at optimum temperature with suitable water flow would give you the same shower experience and save money.
3. Use your washing machine when you have a full load. Believe it or not, the amount of energy use would be the same whether you have a full load or half a load. Also, use cold water for washing as heating up the water will cost more.
4. Turn off the electrical appliance when it is not in use. Items such as TV, computer, rice cooker, etc.

Is it better to invest or pay debts?

For many PF blogs out there, the first answer that you would get if this is the question asked is to pay off the debts.

But the answer actually depends on your current financial situation.

First of all, list down all the debts that you have. Credit cards, hire purchase, mortgage, personal loans, student loans, etc. Next, find out what is the interest rate for each of these debts. 

For me, my current interest rates are as follow:

Credit cards - 15%

Mortgage - 3.85%

Note: I am paying off all my credit cards outstanding at the end of the month. So, I don't have to pay for the interest charge to my outstanding credit cards.

Looking at the above interest rate, I would choose to invest if I can be sure that my annual return of the investment is higher than the interest rate for the debts. But that is impossible to guarantee that my investment returns would be higher than 15%. Thus, I would choose to pay off my debts first.

But in another scenario, if I do not have the credit card debts but only the mortgage, I would definitely invest if I can find an investment that has proven to give me at least a 5% return. That way, I would be able to cover the interest of the mortgage plus earning a bit if passive income for myself.

Also, there are people that would choose to clear off the debts first just because they cannot accept the fact that they are having debts. For some, debts are totally unacceptable.

Which one would you choose?