With incoming cold weather comes energy and money saving tips
GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s a common energy equation this time of year: heating bills go up as temperatures decrease.
And we could be looking at some bitterly cold weather.
According to the Energy Information Administration, several factors affect household energy use.
Those include the home size, climate, and the use of energy-consuming devices.
In November and December lighting up the house with Christmas decorations can add a few dollars to your energy bill, but when January rolls around and Winter kicks in, that’s when the real increases can come into play.
But there are some ways to save energy, and maybe a little money too as the temperature starts to fall.
Energy advisor, Ronnie Vernon said there are a couple of ways to adapt safely and effectively for the cold temperatures.
“The biggest thing that they can do is set their thermostat and leave it alone, watch out for using a space heater,” Vernon said. “Space heaters usually cost between 18-20 cents an hour to run and they only heat a very small place. I see a lot of people with space heaters, what they’ll do is it’ll be a cold front coming in, I’m going to put this space heater out there and make my utility room or my well house. Then, they will forget about it. So, at 20 cents an hour running outside, that thing is running 24 hours a day and then they’ll get some extremely high light bills.”
There are other safety considerations to consider during extreme winter weather, such as minimizing the risk of frozen pipes, protecting gas meters, and not using your oven as a heat source.
The age of your system can also have an impact on efficiency.
“So many folks have older inadequate heating and cooling systems that are not working properly anymore and we will see that it will run their light bill up,” Vernon said. “Also, the biggest thing I see and I have several of them last week, people with heat pumps mess up and get their thermostat set on emergency heat. Do not put it on emergency heat keep it on heat, emergency heat cuts off the outdoor heat pump and runs nothing but the resisted heat and it will raise your light bill up.”
You can look on the 4 County Electric website for any questions regarding power and energy usage.
