Most homeowners are accustomed to paying high energy bills all year long. The electric bills are lower in the fall and winter, but gas bills predictably increase as we run our home heating. We don’t get to shop around for utility providers the way we can for other household expenses, and each time their costs increase, they pass them along to us in the form of higher energy bills. The only surefire way to lower your bills is to reduce consumption and eliminate waste.
If your home was built before the turn of the century, you probably identified numerous restoration projects before you made an offer. Older homes have a charm you’ll never find in a cookie-cutter subdivision, but safety standards were far less rigorous when those homes were built. Even a home constructed more recently typically needs some updating. When Underwriter’s Laboratories mandated three-prong plugs for all new electrical appliances, only about half of USA’s homes had three-prong electrical outlets.