How to Reduce Your Hydro Bill in Ontario: A 15-Step Checklist

To reduce your hydro bill in Ontario, start with the free steps: make sure you are on the right price plan, move laundry, dishwashing and EV charging to off-peak hours, and find the devices that run around the clock. Then tackle the biggest electric loads in your home, such as space heaters, old fridges and electric water heaters, before spending money on upgrades.

The checklist below is ordered roughly by cost and payoff, so you can work from the top. Savings figures are estimates for a typical Toronto-area home on Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing with prices in effect from 1 November 2026. Your results depend on your usage, your utility and your price plan.

Before you start: know where your money goes

An Ontario hydro bill has four parts: electricity (commodity), delivery, regulatory charges and HST, minus the Ontario Electricity Rebate, which is 15.7% from 1 November 2026. Most of the delivery charge is fixed each month, so cutting usage mainly lowers the electricity line. In practice, each kWh you save is worth roughly 10¢ to 20¢ after tax and rebate, depending on the time of day.

Download a year of hourly data from your utility's online account first. Our guide to Green Button energy data shows how. It will tell you which of the steps below matter most for your home.

Free steps (no cost)

1. Choose the right price plan. Ontario homes can pick Time-of-Use, Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) or Tiered. If you can run most big loads overnight, ULO's 3.7¢/kWh overnight price is very attractive, but its weekday 4 to 9 p.m. price is 37.7¢. Homes that use a lot in the early evening are often better on TOU or Tiered. Compare with our electricity price plan calculator using your own data.
2. Shift laundry and dishwashing to off-peak. On TOU, off-peak is 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends and statutory holidays. A dryer load uses about 2.5 to 4 kWh. Moving a 3 kWh load from on-peak (18.9¢) to off-peak (9.1¢) saves about 29¢.
3. Wash in cold water. Most of a washing machine's energy goes into heating water. Cold-water detergents work well for most loads.
4. Charge your EV overnight. Use the car's or charger's scheduling feature. On ULO, overnight charging is priced at 3.7¢/kWh for the commodity.
5. Turn down the water heater. If you have an electric tank, setting it to about 55 °C (rather than higher) cuts standby losses while staying above the range where bacteria grow readily. Ask a plumber if you are unsure.
6. Unplug the second fridge or freezer. A pre-2000 fridge in a garage or basement can use 1,000 kWh a year or more, about $150 or more annually. If it holds a few drinks, it is costing more than it is worth.
7. Use your thermostat well. If you heat with electricity, lower the setpoint 2 to 3 °C overnight and when away. With a heat pump, use small setbacks only, since deep setbacks can trigger expensive backup resistance heat during recovery.

Low-cost steps (under $200)

8. Find and cut base load. Look at your lowest overnight hour. Every 100 W of constant load is about 876 kWh a year. Standby loads typically make up 5 to 10% of household electricity, and smart plugs or advanced power bars on entertainment centres and home offices can cut much of that. See our guide to phantom loads.
9. Switch remaining bulbs to LED. LEDs use about 75 to 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs. Replacing 20 frequently used 60 W bulbs with 9 W LEDs, at three hours a day, saves roughly 1,100 kWh a year (estimate).
10. Put the block heater on a timer. A block heater draws roughly 400 to 1,000 W. Running it all night instead of the two to three hours before you leave can add roughly $10 to $25 a month in winter.
11. Clean the dryer vent and fridge coils. A clogged dryer vent lengthens drying time and is a fire risk. Dusty fridge coils make the compressor work harder.
12. Seal obvious drafts. If you heat with electricity, weatherstripping doors and caulking gaps around windows reduces heating load. Our air sealing guide covers priorities.

Bigger steps (when replacing equipment)

13. Replace an electric tank water heater with a heat pump water heater. Water heating is often the second-largest electric load in homes without electric space heat. A heat pump water heater typically uses about a third of the electricity of a standard electric tank.
14. Upgrade the heating system. If you heat with electric baseboards, a cold-climate heat pump typically delivers two to three times as much heat per kWh. Rebates may apply through the Home Renovation Savings Program; confirm current amounts on saveonenergy.ca (opens in a new tab) before committing.
15. Buy ENERGY STAR when appliances fail. A new ENERGY STAR fridge uses about 350 to 450 kWh a year. Heat pump dryers use roughly half the energy of conventional dryers.

How much can each step reduce your hydro bill?

Step	Typical annual saving (estimate)	Upfront cost
Right price plan	$0 to $150+ depending on usage pattern	Free
Shift 5 dryer loads a week to off-peak	About $75	Free
Unplug old second fridge	About $150 or more	Free
Cut 100 W of base load	About $130 to $150	$0 to $60
Switch 20 bulbs to LED	About $150 to $190	$60 to $120
Block heater timer (Dec to Mar)	$30 to $80	$15 to $30
Electric tank to heat pump water heater	$300 to $450 for a family of four	Several thousand dollars before rebates
Baseboard heat to cold-climate heat pump	Often $800 to $2,000+ in an all-electric home	Several thousand dollars before rebates

These ranges assume about 15¢ per kWh saved after HST and the rebate, and typical household use. Our hydro bill estimator gives a more precise figure for your home.

Caution: Be sceptical of devices sold as "power savers" or "voltage optimizers" that plug into an outlet and claim to cut bills by 30% or more. Residential customers are billed for kWh, and these devices do not reduce the energy your appliances need.

When to stop and get help

If your bill is still high after the steps above, compare usage to the same month last year. A sudden jump with similar weather usually means a new or failing load: a sump pump running constantly, a well pump short-cycling, a heat tape or a malfunctioning electric water heater element.

If paying the bill is the problem, rather than usage:

• Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) gives lower-income households a monthly on-bill credit.
• Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) provides emergency help if you are behind.
• Energy Affordability Program (EAP) from Save on Energy offers free upgrades such as insulation, appliances and smart thermostats to income-eligible households.
• Equal billing spreads costs evenly across the year.

Frequently asked questions

What uses the most electricity in an Ontario home?

In homes without electric heat, the biggest loads are usually the water heater (if electric), dryer, fridge and freezers, cooking, and lighting and electronics. In homes with electric baseboards or a heat pump, space heating dominates in winter.

Is Ultra-Low Overnight worth it?

It depends on whether you can avoid the 4 to 9 p.m. weekday window. Households with an EV or flexible laundry habits often save. Households that cook, do laundry and run electric heat in the early evening may pay more.

Why didn't my bill drop after I cut usage?

Part of the delivery charge is fixed, the Ontario Electricity Rebate fell on 1 November 2026, and winter loads like lighting and furnace fans rise. Compare kWh used, not dollars, to see your real progress.

Do smart thermostats reduce hydro bills?

If you heat or cool with electricity, yes, typically 5 to 10% of heating energy with sensible setbacks. If you heat with gas, the electricity savings are small, mostly from the furnace fan and air conditioner.