This winter, your bills will be significantly higher due to inflation and the price increase of natural gas, heating oil, and other fuels.
As such, if you’ve already opened your electric bill to find a shocking amount owing, you have already noticed this change.
The Associated Press reported that household heating bills are expected to increase by up to 54%, MSN reported.
Knowing what’s costing you the most can help you figure out how to lower your electric bill. Using a simple formula, it is easy to determine how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) a device consumes in a month or year and then find ways to reduce consumption where possible.
A kilowatt-hour is a measure of how much power is consumed by an appliance in an hour of operation. Many appliances will tell you how many watts their device operates at or a range of wattages it uses in an hour. After you know the wattage, you can divide it by 1,000 (in order to get the kilowatt equivalent), then multiply it by how many hours you use the item per day. Based on that, you can figure out how many kilowatt-hours you are consuming every day.
You could then try it with the U.S. Department of Energy’s number of $0.14 per kWh for average U.S. utility rates.
Or, you can contact your energy provider directly for a more specific rate. By knowing your costs, you can determine which appliances or devices are really the energy vampires and what isn’t really needing as much electricity.