Here I would like to put to rest some of the myths of electric usage.
One of the most common myths about electric usage revolves around space heaters. I cannot tell you how many customers that I have come in contact with over the years who are complaining because of their high electric bills who admit to using space heaters. Space heaters are one of the largest energy hogs a house can have. Do space heaters produce good heat? Absolutely! Are space heaters cheap to operate? Absolutely not! If I have a call in the winter and someone tells me that their bills are just too high, I will pull up their bill detail and look for myself. I can almost instantly detect that they are using space heaters. One of the questions that I often ask is, do you have gas? If they answer yes but tell me it is off and that they are using space heaters I tell them that this is why their bills are so high. Most of the time they do not believe me and want to argue. They think that I am with the utility and that I am not there to help them. Listen to me please! It is cheaper to turn your gas on than it is to heat with space heaters. This goes for baseboard heaters and Amish heaters as well.
Another myth about electric usage is that the utility company is singling you out to make your bill higher than everyone else around you. This is one of my favorite one’s. So, ask yourself this, why would a utility go through all of the trouble to add a few extra dollars to your bill, or let’s say even one hundred extra dollars to your bill and risk being found out in and audit and fined when they can just raise the rate by a few pennies and make tens of thousands of dollars more every month. Get real people.
Many people do not realize that their lifestyle has much to do with their electric usage. Which leads me to the next myth about electric usage. I hear all of the time “I do not understand why my bill is higher than my neighbor’s bill when I am gone all day and they stay at home.” Your neighbor has a different lifestyle than you do. You can live in an exact copy of your neighbor’s house will all of the same appliances and your bills will be different. You may stay up later than they do, wash more loads of laundry, stay in the shower longer, open the refrigerator door more often than they do. These are things that are reflected in your electric bill.
Stay tuned for more myths about electric usage coming later.