HOUSTON — It’s not even officially summer yet and you’re probably already sweating that power bill! Prices are up 70% in the past year. If you’re not feeling the heat of that increase, you will.
We've got a few tips to help lower your power bill.
“There are limited tools in the toolbox right now for most people,” said David Kinchen with electricity management company Energy Ogre.
He suggested turning off the heated dry button on your dishwasher and turn on the energy saver on your clothes dryer.
He also recommends going through your house and turning off things you don’t use.
“You have all kinds of things that are sitting around,” he said. “You have PlayStations, old DVRs , you have TVs maybe not in use. If you were to unplug ten even small devices, turn the coffee pot off when you’re done with it, those things do add up over time for sure.”
The recommendation is to set your thermostat at 78 degrees. For each degree below that, your power bill can increase 7%.
Here are some other recommendations to keep your house cool.
- Turn the blinds upward to reduce up to 30% of unwanted heat.
- Run ceiling fans counterclockwise to pull cool air from the ground so it blows back on you.
- Close unused rooms to prevent cool air from flowing through
Kinchen says natural gas prices plummeted after last week’s explosion at the Freeport LNG plant. Those prices are what set energy costs.
“If we continue to build natural gas in our storage, that LNG explosion, means some of that natural gas is no longer leaving the country that has pushed prices down more,” he said.
If you’re in a rate plan, Kinchen suggests trying out a management company like Energy Ogre to see if you can get a better deal.
“We try to take all of that information and we try to take all of that decision making process off the table and just handle it for our members,” he said.