On a typical winter day in North Texas, electric heat customers typically use about twice as much electricity as a gas heat customer.
On a very cold day, perhaps like today, it can be almost three times as much.
On a monthly basis, it’s an average of about two and a half times more for electric heat customers. For January, a typical electric heat customer might use 2,500 kilowatt-hours compared with the 900 kWhs of a gas-heat customer.
Whether you have electric or natural gas heat, with the snow coming down, you’re probably using more electricity today than normal.
What are you doing to be energy-efficient?
I just read an article on slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2245899/) about how an energy company in Connecticut is offering its customers $75 home energy assessments. They get a blower test, caulking, stripping, taping, and other weatherizing, an electricity monitor, and a second follow-up blower test. Apparently, the company, which subsidizes the services, feels its worth the money to save on seeking out new sources of power. Is FirstChoice considering running a program like that? I would be first in line if they were…
Melanie,
Thanks for your comment. We do not have a program like that at this time, but we are always evaluating customer programs that provide you value beyond your electricity service.
Your TDSP may have an energy-efficient program that you might be interested. Which TDSP do you have?
First Choice Power offers dozens of no- and low-cost energy tips as well as some that have higher upfront costs and thus higher efficiency possibilities at http://www.FirstChoicePower.com/tips.
Thanks again for your post.
Thanks for the reply.
I’m afraid I don’t know what TDSP stands for. My electricity comes from you guys (First Choice).
–Melanie
Melanie,
Sorry for using “energy speak.” Your TDSP is your transmission distribution service provider, does that help? Probably not. It’s the company that you call during an outage, reads your meter and maintains the poles and wires in your area. It could be AEP, Oncor, CenterPoint or TNMP, depending on where you live. Let me know what city you live in, and I’m happy to post the link to its energy-efficiency program.
Thanks for reading the blog,
Catherine