Ways to improve your energy efficiency
Being efficient is a good thing and it’s interesting how efficient we can become when we are the ones paying for that resource. Especially if you run into a situation where your electric bill is just too high.
Posted by Darrell Erickson on October 30, 2017
The definition of efficient is to prevent the wasteful use of a particular resource. Being efficient is a good thing and it’s interesting how efficient we can become when we are the ones paying for that resource. Especially if you run into a situation where your electric bill is just too high.
One of the hardest calls to answer here at Wright-Hennepin (WH) is from someone concerned about their bill being too high. When we do get those calls, we take the time to find out if something is wrong and to explain how a customer’s electrical usage directly impacts their bill. Usage, as it pertains to the bill, is the sum of all the electricity consumed at a home over the period of one month. Usage is the one part of your bill that you have control over. If you can lower your usage, you can lower your bill.
With the days starting to get shorter, lighting is one thing we all will be needing more of. LED light bulbs are a great example of efficiency as they provide the same amount of light with a third of the amount of power, that’s efficient! Lighting is not the only area where we can be more efficient. Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and water heating are other areas we should consider. Installing Electronically Commutated Motors (ECMs) in furnaces and making sure we have proper insulation in our homes and around the water heater are also important. If you have an electric water heater or heat source, WH has off-peak programs that can lower the cost per kWh for those items. Typically, off-peak usage is deducted from the general service usage on your bill and is billed at a lower rate.
In this day and age, there are a number of tools we can use to understand why our electric usage is what it is. If you are a WH member, you may have heard of MyMeter, WHs free online energy tracking program. MyMeter is a very useful program that allows you to monitor your daily electric usage in kilowatt hours. You can also compare your usage with your neighbors’ and see how your usage changes in comparison to the outside temperature. Through MyMeter, members can also set up notifications and receive an email when a certain number of kilowatt hours is met for each month. There are also things like kilowatt meters or apps like kWh Calculator that allow you to measure or calculate what an individual item is using. Once we find out where most of our usage is occurring, we can look at ways to control it, such as programmable thermostats, timers and motion sensors.
If you are new to WH or have not heard of MyMeter, contact a WH Member Service Representative at (763) 477-3000 to learn more about it.
