One of the bad things about living in Texas is the summer heat. Summer days can reach 100+ degrees (38+ degrees for my non-American readers) and the heat lasts way into the night (I routinely go to bed when it is still 85+ degrees out).
With the summer heat come the use of the air conditioner and with the use of the AC comes the increase in electricity usage. Electricity rates in Texas are, in a word, high. I am not sure how they compare to other states but I know my mom pays a lot less for electricity than I do (last year she was paying about eight cents /Kwh). We were blessed to be locked into a low rate several years ago. That rate lasted three years and by the time the contract was over, rates had DOUBLED...so my eight cent per kilowatt hour was now 16 cents. While this hurt, we were able to shop around and get electricity for 14.5 cents for a year (Texas has deregulated electricity so you can shop around for the best rates).
After our contract was over we continued to use Direct Energy until their rates became higher than other providers, so switched to Texas Power, a small but popular service provider in our area. They were offering 14.5 cents when Direct Energy went up to 16 cents. We stayed with them for a while but after noticing that our last two bills went up considerably (from 15 cents to 18 cents then the next month from 18 cents to 20 cents) my wife changed providers so we are getting in the 15 cent range again for one year.
Is it really worth shopping around for good rates? You be the judge. When I was with Direct Energy at eight cents/Kwh my largest electric bill was $150...and that was during a drought with several 100+ days...in August. Now if my rate /Kwh doubles...my bill doubles. My first real bill on the new rate at 16 cents was...$300.
I bring this up because our last bill we received was $315...that was AFTER I made changes to the thermostat and started using a laptop instead of the power hungrier desktop...not to mention using more natural sunlight and changing light bulbs to something a little more energy efficient. I do not want to see what my bill would have been in August had we stayed at 20 cents /Kwh. At least at 15 cents my electricity bill shold be less than $300 next month. Insane, but managable.
Oh, if you think my bills are high, let me inform you that I have a modest 1650 sq ft, 10 year old home. I know many people who pay a lot more per month than we do for electricity simply because they have bigger homes and keep the thermostat set cooler than we do (we are currently set at 77 in the day and 79 at night). I know one lady who has her thermostat set to 81 in the summer...she just cannot afford to pay $400 electricity bills. While her home is warmer than ours, she makes good use of ceiling fans, which we do as well. I just turned them up to medium so they move more air and make the house feel comfortable.
Amything to keep the bills down.
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