Healthy, Eco-Friendly Home: 7 Simple Steps to Lower Your Electricity Bill

How can a healthy, eco-friendly home cost 50% less to heat?

A healthy, eco-friendly home can reduce your electricity bill by up to 50%, while also offering a higher resale value and better indoor air quality. Good news: many of these savings start with simple actions—well before you even think about new construction, which is a major undertaking that requires time, financial resources, and careful planning.

At UrbanÉco, our team supports future Quebec homeowners with this kind of project every day. During a consultation, they can inform you about the benefits of a healthy, eco-friendly home and how to properly manage this type of project.

In the meantime, here are 7 simple actions you can take right now to reduce your ecological footprint and your cost of living:

Install WaterSense-certified fixtures to reduce water flow.
Quickly repair small water leaks in plumbing fixtures.
Replace your incandescent bulbs with LEDs.
Choose your LEDs based on lumens and energy rating, not watts.
Match your LED color temperature to the room.
Lower the heat by one degree during winter.
Turn off or unplug electronics on standby.

Let’s look at each of these actions in more detail.

Managing your water consumption

Before anything else, it’s important to understand the water cycle that supplies homes in our cities. First, water is purified before being distributed to users. It is then treated before being returned to natural environments. This represents a collective energy expenditure. On an individual scale, it’s hot water consumption that has the biggest impact. Domestic water heating accounts for 20% of the average Quebec household’s electricity bill [1]. Showers, in particular, are fixtures whose water consumption can have a major impact on both your wallet and the environment. To reduce your water consumption, it’s therefore essential to choose products that control water flow. WaterSense certification, which originates in the United States, identifies products that significantly reduce water consumption while remaining just as effective as a standard model. To be certified, a product must guarantee a flow reduction of at least 20% compared to products in the same category. Less hot water consumed also means less electricity needed to heat it. Since water heating accounts for about 20% of the average Quebec household’s electricity bill*, choosing WaterSense-certified products directly helps reduce this portion of your Hydro-Québec bill.

In concrete terms:

A WaterSense-certified showerhead saves about 15 litres of water per shower.
A certified faucet can save up to 30,385 litres of water per year [2].

A second, equally simple action: keep an eye out for small leaks in your plumbing fixtures. According to Hydro-Québec, a simple dripping faucet can waste about 27 litres of water per day [1]—nearly 10,000 litres per year—on top of the electricity used to needlessly heat that water.

Where can you find water-saving products?

Check with a retailer or a big-box hardware store: not all flow-control products are necessarily WaterSense-certified, but many are just as effective—sometimes even with better flow! You’ll find them at hardware stores or online, for example on the Hydro-Québec or Ecofitt website.

And there was light: switching to LED bulbs

Light up your home with a more efficient, longer-lasting bulb: the LED (light-emitting diode). According to Hydro-Québec, unlike incandescent bulbs, which use only 5% of the energy they consume to produce light, LEDs use energy far more efficiently, delivering up to 80% energy savings [3].

LEDs can last between 5 and 20 years depending on the model, and are suitable for all types of fixtures (indoor or outdoor) since they’re made of plastic and withstand any temperature. For those who care about design, classic-looking models that mimic the appearance of an incandescent bulb are also available, in different tones: white light, warmer light, or even decorative options.

Don’t confuse the two: LED bulbs are not the same as compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use less energy than incandescent bulbs, but they can’t be recycled the same way because of the toxic gases they contain.

How do you choose the right LED bulb?

What you should look at is lumens (not watts). The higher the lumens, the more powerful the light. Conversely, the higher the wattage, the more electricity the bulb consumes. For example, a 60-watt incandescent bulb can produce as much light as a 12-watt LED bulb. You should also match the brightness to the environment you want to light, since overly powerful light causes the eye’s iris to close, making it harder to see outside the light’s cone and leaving your eyes poorly adjusted once you leave the lit area. This can even create safety issues.

Bulbs’ energy efficiency is also rated by letter, from A to G, with A being the most efficient [4].

Which LED color temperature should you choose for each room?

Our interior designer, Amelia Jasper-Laurin, advises: reserve cool-toned LEDs for rooms where strong brightness is needed, or for targeted uses like a desk lamp. Blue-spectrum LEDs mimic sunlight, which triggers melatonin overproduction in humans. In other words, too much blue light can keep you awake. Instead, choose a warmer-spectrum LED with frosted rather than clear glass for living spaces and bedrooms.

Optimizing heating and electronics

Heating can account for up to 60% of a Quebec home’s energy needs. Good news: lowering the heat by just one degree Celsius can reduce your heating costs by 5 to 7% [5]. A programmable or smart thermostat makes this kind of adjustment much easier, especially at night or when the house is empty.

Another simple, often overlooked action: electronics on standby continue to draw electricity. According to Hydro-Québec, up to 40% of some electronic devices’ annual energy consumption occurs while they’re simply on standby rather than turned off [6]. A power bar with a switch makes it easy to cut power to several devices at once, and can also be plugged into a timer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 7 simplest actions to reduce your electricity bill? Install WaterSense-certified products, repair water leaks, switch to LED bulbs, choose your LEDs based on lumens and energy rating, match your lighting’s color temperature to the room, lower the heat by one degree, and turn off devices on standby.

How much can you save by switching to LED bulbs? Up to 80% energy savings compared to an incandescent bulb, according to Hydro-Québec, with a lifespan of 5 to 20 years depending on the model.

What is WaterSense certification? It’s a U.S. certification that identifies products reducing water consumption by at least 20% compared to standard products in their category, without compromising performance.

Can an eco-friendly home really cut your electricity bill by 50%? Yes, by combining several measures: hot water management, LED lighting, properly adjusted heating, material choices, and, of course, strong building envelope performance—insulation and air-tightness. A well-designed, healthy, eco-friendly home can reduce your electricity bill by up to 50% compared to a standard build.

Want to go further?

Are you planning major upgrades to make your home healthier and more eco-friendly, or starting a new construction project? UrbanÉco’s team of experts can guide you through every step of your project.

Sources:

[1] Water Heating Tips — Hydro-Québec [2] https://www.epa.gov/watersense [3] https://www.hydroquebec.com/residentiel/mieux-consommer/conseils/eclairage/choisir-ampoule-del.html#!/ [4] https://www.leroymerlin.fr/v3/p/tous-les-contenus/comment-choisir-son-ampoule-l1308222968 [5] https://www.hydroquebec.com/affaires/conseils/dix-trucs-pour-economiser.html [6] https://www.hydroquebec.com/residentiel/mieux-consommer/conseils/appareils-electroniques/charges-fantomes.html

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