Halloween is all about the spooks and the scares, but you don't want to be frightened when your October energy bill arrives! Follow these energy saving tips to reduce your power use and stop your energy bill from haunting you:
Choose LED holiday lights.
Decorating your porch or doorway with orange holiday lights is a good way to celebrate, but conventional string lights tend to consume a lot of energy. Look for LED lights to hang instead. They use a lot less power, and they'll last a lot longer, too.
Host your party in the dark.
If you're hosting a Halloween party, you may be tempted to turn the lights on throughout your home and let guests roam. However, you can save energy and get into the Halloween spirit by turning off the lights in most areas of the home. Leave them on in the main room where you've laid out the food and drinks. Gently illuminate the other rooms with some LED Halloween lights or a few battery-powered candles placed inside jack-o-lanterns.
Hand out candy from the porch.
By the time Halloween rolls around, you'll probably have your heat on. Opening the door repeatedly for trick-or-treaters will let all of your heat escape, wasting energy. Instead, bundle up in a warm costume and sit on the porch with your candy. You won't let the hot air out. Plus, you get to spend more time enjoying the spooky night air and all of the kids' costumes.
Place solar lights along your walkway.
You wouldn't want anyone to trip and fall as they walk up to your porch for candy. But you really don't need to turn on all of your porch lights for them to see clearly. A few days before Halloween, install some solar lights along the path to your front door. They'll harvest sunlight during the day and use it to generate light once night falls.
Put decorations on a timer.
If you have any light-up Halloween decorations or holiday lights, make sure you plug them into a timer. You can purchase inexpensive timers that plug into your outlets at most home goods stores. This way, you can set the decorations to turn off automatically rather than risk forgetting to power them down.
Happy Halloween! For more tips on saving energy, check out 5 Real Ways to Lower Your Energy Bill.