Each year the holiday season and cold weather cause Sam Houston Electric Cooperative members to consume more electricity. Bills are calculated each month based on the exact amount of energy your home uses. Cold-weather heating and cooking cause more electricity to be consumed.
Just as your car consumes more gasoline on long trips, your home consumes more energy for heating during cold weather. You may have noticed your heater running constantly, or you may have used space heaters to maintain a comfortable home. Here are a few tips to keep your electric bill from ruining the holidays:
- Program your savings with a programmable thermostat. When you are asleep or away from your home, turn your thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees for 8 hours and save around 10% a year on heating and cooling.
- Our hot water heaters are constantly warming the water in the tank trying to keep the temperature close to where you set it. And most of us have our hot water heater temperature set too high. Lowering this setting will save money.
- Our devices don’t sleep. Even though we turn off the computer, DVR, PlayStation, or other devices, most go into standby mode—instead of completely powering off. They’re also regularly performing updates, downloading content, and wasting energy when they’re still plugged in. Phantom, or vampire loads, can account for more than 10% of your power bill.
- Run your appliances without running up your bill with a few easy tips: change your A/C filter routinely; clean your refrigerator’s condenser coils; always wash or dry full loads of clothes; and turn off the heated dry setting on the dishwasher.