Tired of breaking the bank just to keep up with the Joneses? Forget fancy cars and other status symbols. How about a way to maintain a friendly neighborly competition that actually involves saving money instead of spending? Americans have a wealth of resources at their disposal to empower families to cut back on energy consumption and reduce their electricity bills, but we don't do a stellar job of taking advantage of that information. Recent research, however, has shown that homeowners are more likely to take efficiency measures with their electrical work when they can compare their own consumption to that of their neighbors.

Whose Bill is the Lowest?

The experiment took place last summer, when the Vermont utility company Green Mountain Power worked with Opower, a software company that specializes in behavioral economics. During very hot days when air conditioning use was expected to be high, the utility reached out to customers with tips on reducing the amount of energy they need to power their home electrical work.

Afterward, the utility gave a report which ranked households in the neighborhood based on how well they had done on cutting back. By the end of the summer, electricity consumption among Green Mountain customers had dropped by five percent during hot days. That's some serious savings!

Peer Pressure at its Best

That five percent resulted from simple behavioral changes like bumping the thermostat up a few degrees and using curtains to block out sunlight during the hottest part of the day – no major investments or new equipment needed, just a little peer pressure. This research should be useful in helping understand what motivates people to save energy in order to develop more effective outreach programs for utility companies around the country.

One of the big takeaways is that the utility didn't give its customers any kind of incentives or payments to change their behavior – just the money they saved through efficiency, and the bragging rights of being more conservation-minded than their neighbors.

"Some of the decisions we make are not entirely rational, and they are due to a lack of context," Kevin Hamilton, Opower's vice president of marketing, said to Utility Drive, "and by providing that context you can encourage individuals to adjust their usage in ways that can benefit both the customer and the utility as well."

Little Changes Mean Big Savings

People come up with all kinds of reasons not to implement efficiency measures: It costs too much in initial capital, they are too busy to think about it, or they simply don't think the savings are worthwhile. But the reality is that even making small behavioral changes can add up in the long run.

If you want to decrease the cost of your electrical work and impress your neighbors, have a qualified home services technician perform an energy audit on your house to identify the most cost-effective ways for you to cut back.

Smart homeowners are always looking for ways to lower their electricity bills. Not only do you save money, but you reduce your environmental footprint as well by decreasing your reliance on fossil fuels. Lowering your electricity and other utility bills can increase the value of your house and even correspond with living a happier life. There are endless tips and tricks available to help you cut back on your electricity usage, but be prudent -- there are some persistent myths out there about home electric use that won't actually help you save energy, and could end up costing you. Read on to find some common claims about electricity that simply aren't true.

Energy efficient light bulbs are too expensive: Light bulbs cost more to buy in the store than they used to, it's true. Thanks to federal regulations, traditional, cheap, incandescent bulbs have all but disappeared from the market,  replaced with options like compact fluorescent bulbs, LEDs and halogen bulbs that all have a higher price tag. However, the modern bulb options use far less electricity and have longer life spans that the incandescents of yore, meaning you will actually save money in the long run. The average household should save about $75 each year by replacing old light bulbs with newer, more efficient versions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

You don't need to power off your computers and other electronics when you aren't using them: Most computers, televisions and other modern electronic devices go into sleep or hibernation mode when they haven't been used for a period of time. However, hibernating is not the same as fully powering down. Leaving a computer in sleep mode still draws electricity. Furthermore, even in sleep mode, electronics experience tiny but cumulative wear and tear. Save electricity and prolong the life of your devices by shutting them off and unplugging them when you don't need to use them for several hours.

Setting the AC to frigid will cool your house down fast: Wrong. Your air conditioner cools at the same rate regardless of how hard it has to work to meet your thermostat setting. So if you turn the dial to its lowest setting, you won't cool off any faster, but you will waste electricity once the machine passes your desired temperature and keeps on trucking to cool the house even further.

Solar panels aren't an option for me: While solar panels produce best in climates with a lot of clear, sunny days, homes in cloudy or rainy regions of the country can also benefit from them. Fog and clouds block some of the sun's energy, but not all of it, so residents of famously weather-obscured cities like Seattle and San Francisco can still get good value by installing a solar array on their roofs.

To separate what's real from what's false in the world of electricity efficiency, hire an expert to conduct a home energy audit. A trusted professional can evaluate your home and appliances, show you where you can make cost-efficient upgrades and steer you away from useless or counterproductive measures.