As an individual, we can indirectly help reduce energy poverty by reducing our demand for energy. Reducing the general energy demand allows the power utility companies to reduce productions from more expensive sources like fossil-fuels, and shift their sources to cheaper cleaner renewable energy, which currently is a small percentage of the total production sources.

Fossil-fuel sources are continuing to be more expensive due to their ever-diminishing supply. Further costs are added due to any carbon tax or environmental cost of using these sources which harm the environment.

We can reduce our power demand from the utility by installing efficient solar photovoltaic panels or wind turbines at our homes, and signing net-metering contracts with the utility company. Net-metering is when you connect your source of power (like solar or wind) with the power from the utility, and pay only if you use more than what you generate. Any excess you produce is normally credited to your next month’s bill, or paid back to you in currency, depending on the country.

Beyond installing renewable energy systems at home, we could also switch off electronics that are on standby when not in use. Electronics on standby, sometimes called ‘vampire appliances’, still consumes electricity even when we think it is switched off. Studies in 2002 from the Cornell University in the United States estimated that consumers worldwide spent billions of dollars on energy bills just because of these vampire appliances.

We could also further reduce our dependency on fossil-fuels by upgrading our conventional fuel-consuming vehicles to hybrid or completely electric ones. These vehicles could then be charged at home using the renewable sources available, thus being fossil-fuel free.