As electricity costs continue to rise and strain household budgets, many Americans are being forced to make difficult financial trade-offs just to keep up. 53% say their electricity bill is a source of financial stress. But where you live can make a huge difference, and that's good news for Georgia's own Atlanta. A new study ranked Atlanta the most energy efficient city in the nation.

To identify the most energy-efficient U.S. cities, Prepaid Electricity analyzed 98 of the largest cities across four key metrics: energy-saving search interest, smart home adoption, electricity consumption, and monthly costs, using data from Google, Zillow, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Some key takeaways:

• Atlanta took the #1 spot for energy efficiency, with Orlando, Scottsdale, Pittsburgh, and Saint Paul in the top 5.
• Atlanta leads all cities in energy-saving search interest per capita (1,295 searches per 100K residents).
• Atlanta ranks 14th in the U.S. for smart home adoption. 
• Atlanta ranks 71st for average monthly electricity consumption in the U.S. 
• Atlanta's monthly electricity cost ranks 69th in the U.S.

Check out the full study and rankings here.