Home owners spend on the average of $2,000 - $2,400 a year on their power bills. You can lower that amount and do your part to help the environment. The following tips won't cost you anything but keep in mind there are also inexpensive energy solutions available that can save you even more money. You could also consider using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

~ Cook fast by using your microwave. Your microwave uses 2/3rds less power than your electric stove.

~ Washing your dishes by pushing a button! What does that mean? That means that your dishwasher uses less water than when you wash your dishes by hand and if you turn off the heat dry setting on your dishwasher and allow the dishes to air dry. You can save even more.

~ Almost out of food? This causes your refrigerator to work longer and harder to keep what little food there is cold. So, stock that fridge and keep it full. The same goes for the freezer.

Here are some more things you can do at home, at no cost you, that will help you cut back on unnecessary power use to reduce power consumption and save you money.

Replace your thermostat with a programmable one. Then set it at 78 degrees when you are at home and set the away temperature at 85 degrees or off for when nobody is at home. You can use ceiling fans for air movement which will help to keep rooms cool even when your thermostat is set at 78 degrees or higher.

In those climates of high heat when there is a strain on the power grids due to excessive power consumption from air conditioners you can help prevent power outages by not running your appliances during peek hours. 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m..

When you do laundry use the warm or cold settings on your washer and always rinse with cold water. To dry your clothes use a cloth's line outdoors whenever possible. When you do need to use your clothing's dryer only dry full loads and use the moisture setting so the dryer will shut off as soon as the clothes are dry. Make sure the lint screen is cleaned before every time you use the dryer.

If you have a swimming pool cut back the amount of time the filter and the cleaning crawler are running to four to five hours and run them during off peak hours.

Don't waste energy by leaving appliances or lights on. Unplug chargers (like your cell phone charger) that are not in use as they still draw power when plugged into a wall receptacle even if they aren't plugged into your phone. You could use a power strip to plug in those chargers then you could simply turn off the power strip when none of the chargers are in use.

If you have a spare refrigerator or freezer in the garage that doesn't get used much unplug it or recycle it. This alone can save you as much as &150.00 a year.