Author: Brenda Williams, Interior
designer and decorating

My boyfriend is notorious for leaving lights on. As a matter of fact, I would be willing to bet that for every light switch that
actually turned a light on in our apartment, if I wasn’t around to casually switch it off, he would have every one turned on at
some point during the day.

It isn’t a big deal to turn lights on. As a matter of fact, having plenty of ample light in an apartment of home can make it
feel very warm and lived-in. However, the problem arises when you leave your lights on and then get the electric bill in the
mail. The good news is that there are several ways that you can combat a high electric bill by conserving money starting with
your light switch.

Imagine you had a house that was over 3,000 square feet. Now imagine that you lived there alone. I, for one, would have every
single light turned on in that house if it was just me staying there (even for one night) because I am terrified of my own
shadow. But imagine what the cost would be to light a home like that if you were to turn and leave all of the lights on all of
the time, every night. It would be astronomical. Running electricity is not cheap, and most people tend to overdo it
during the colder months because that is when the days are shorter and colder. As a result, we are cranking up the heat in
our apartments and keeping lights on longer so that we can see what we are doing.

One of the first habits that you can start building up is getting to bed on time. There are plenty of reasons and
incentives that we have for needing to get more sleep each night. From adding years to your life to making you look more
youthful and rested, one more reason to head to bed early at night is because doing so will actually save you money. For
example, compare the electric bill of two people living in the same apartment complex in the same square footage apartment but
on separate floors. Person ‘A’ is a late-night person who prefers to stay up late just because they can never seem to
relax or be tired enough to go to bed early. Person ‘B’ is someone who believes in the motto, “The early bird gets the
worm,” and is always in bed no later than 10 p.m. Of these two people, which one do you think has the higher energy bill?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure things like this out. Sometimes it can be more complicated when you live with someone
who is the opposite of you regarding sleep. If this is the case, you may want to look into purchasing some energy-efficient bulbs
or perhaps even looking into some automatic timers for the lights around your home. Who knows; maybe such a thing actually
exists! If this is the case, then all you would have to do is set the timer to go off after a certain period of time had
elapsed (much like setting the sleep timer on a television). Just remember that the more lights you leave on, the higher your
electric bill will be!