Most “lower your electric bill” lists are ranked backwards. They open with unplugging phone chargers and switching to LED bulbs, then bury the two changes that actually move the number. If you only do the small stuff, you save a few dollars and conclude saving energy isn’t worth it.
I’ve run the math on hundreds of bills. The truth is that a handful of changes account for almost all the savings, and they’re not the ones you’d guess. Here’s the list ranked by dollars, not by how easy it is to feel virtuous about.
Where the money actually is
Three things dominate a typical home’s bill: heating and cooling, water heating, and anything that runs for hours every day. Lights, TVs, and chargers are rounding errors by comparison. So the ranking below starts with the big levers.
| Change | Typical annual savings | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Shift EV charging and laundry to off-peak | $300 to $700 | Low |
| Move to the right rate plan | $100 to $600 | Low |
| Adjust the thermostat 3 to 4 degrees | $150 to $350 | Low |
| Shorten and re-time the pool pump | $200 to $500 | Low |
| Lower the water heater to 120F, add a timer | $80 to $200 | Low |
| Seal and weatherstrip leaks | $100 to $250 | Medium |
| Replace an old second fridge or freezer | $80 to $180 | Medium |
| Switch remaining bulbs to LED | $40 to $100 | Low |
| Cut phantom/standby loads | $20 to $60 | Low |
These ranges depend on your rate and climate, but the order rarely changes. Start at the top.
1. Shift your flexible loads to off-peak
If you’re on a time-of-use plan, electricity in the late afternoon and evening can cost two to three times the overnight price. On PG&E’s EV2-A plan, off-peak power is $0.23/kWh and the 4 to 9 p.m. peak is $0.54 in summer. That’s the same kWh costing more than double depending on when you use it.
EV charging is the biggest single load you can move. Set the car to start after midnight and you cut its cost by more than half without driving one mile less. Laundry, the dishwasher, and the pool pump are next. None of this reduces your comfort. It just moves the timing.
If you don’t know your plan’s peak window, PG&E peak hours lays it out, and the peak hours tool shows the exact window for any California plan.
2. Get on the right rate plan
This is the rare change that saves money with zero behavior change. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive plan for the same usage is often $100 to $600 a year. Most people are on whatever plan their home defaulted to and have never checked.
The catch is that the best plan depends entirely on how you use power through the day, so generic advice can’t tell you the answer. The rate-plan comparison tool and a bill upload settle it in a minute. If you have an EV, the best PG&E plan for an EV covers that case specifically.
3. Move the thermostat, then stop touching it
Heating and cooling is usually the largest line on the bill. Each degree you give up in summer or winter cuts cooling and heating energy by roughly 1 to 3 percent. Going from 72 to 76 in summer, with a fan to make up the difference, is often a $150 to $350 a year change. A smart thermostat that pre-cools before the peak window stacks this with lever number one.
4. Fix the pool pump
If you have a pool, the pump is often the second-biggest load in the house after the AC, and it’s almost always running too long on too high a speed. Cutting the schedule to what the water actually needs, and running it in off-peak hours, routinely saves $200 to $500 a year. A variable-speed pump saves even more.
5. Tune the water heater
Drop the tank temperature to 120F (still plenty hot, and safer), and if it’s electric, put it on a timer or a load-shift schedule so it reheats off-peak. Combined, that’s commonly $80 to $200 a year, and the temperature change alone takes two minutes.
6 through 9. The smaller stuff, in order
Seal the leaks. Weatherstripping doors, sealing the attic hatch, and caulking obvious gaps reduces how hard the HVAC works. Real, but it’s a supporting move, not the headline.
Retire an old second fridge or freezer. A garage fridge from 2005 can use two to three times what a modern one does and runs every hour of the year. If you don’t need it, unplugging it is found money.
Finish the LED swap. Worth doing, but at this point most homes are mostly LED already, so the remaining savings are modest.
Cut phantom loads. Smart power strips for the entertainment center and unplugging things that sit in standby will save $20 to $60. It’s last on the list for a reason. It’s not nothing, but it’s not where you start.
Find your own ranking
Every home’s order is a little different. A home with no pool and no EV has a completely different top of the list than one with both. The fastest way to see your version is to look at what each appliance costs you at your rate, then attack the biggest numbers first.
See exactly what's driving your bill and what to cut first. Upload a bill and the Energy Advisor reads it line by line, or run your appliances through the calculator.
Find what's driving my bill →Two tools make this concrete: the appliance cost calculator ranks your appliances by yearly cost, and the bill diagnosis tool tells you why your bill changed. If your bill jumped suddenly rather than creeping up, start with why your bill went up instead.
Dana Whitmore
Energy Engineer & Billing Analyst · Optiwatt Energy Advisor
Dana has spent the past three years analyzing residential electricity billing data across PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E service territories. She's reviewed billing records for thousands of California households, and built the simulation engine that powers this site's rate-plan comparisons. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives in the Bay Area.