When temperatures drop, power bills spike. These tips can help lower your heating costs
Northwest Florida is forecast to see temperatures in the teens and 20s this week, and for many people their first instinct will be to crank up the thermostat.
But if you're not careful, you may crank up your heating bill as well.
Florida Power & Light Company has some tips and suggestions for saving energy and money during the winter.
“One of the biggest drivers of energy use, this time of year especially, is your heating bill,” said Shelley Ragsdale, a communications specialist at FPL. “When it’s cold out, your unit is going to work harder to make up for it. Just knowing that and some of these tips can minimize some of the increase.”
FPL’s energy experts recommend a variety of things for saving energy during the winter, including using electric blankets and staying aware of your devices’ power consumption when you’re not around.
Here are some more tips to keep your bill low when the temperature drops:
Incoming weather: Pensacola facing another round of severe weather on Friday; temps in 20s next week
Small ways to save
By using natural sunlight throughout the day and helpful devices like portable heaters and electric blankets, customers can stay warm despite while also ensuring that their energy bill isn’t skyrocketing.
“If you’re trying to stay warm at night, electric blankets are recommended and more efficient than a space heater,” Booth said.
Set your thermostat to 68 degrees as a baseline. For every degree you lower the thermostat under 68 degrees, you can save up to 5% on your heating costs. Every degree above 68 degrees can increase costs on your bill by 3-5%.
“Your biggest energy consumer is your strip in your air conditioning system,” said FPL’s Regional Manager of Customer Solutions and Sales Corey Booth. “For every degree you raise it, it’ll be a 5% increase on your bill. Raising it too quick turns the auxiliary heat on and can cost more than four times what a heat pump costs.”
Keep an eye on your heating devices
Whether you’re using a space heater, a heat pump or staying warm with your thermostat alone, you should be keeping an eye on the temperature of your devices throughout every day.
Adjusting temperature of electric water heater to 120 degrees can help save energy, especially if it’s in the garage during the cold. Dropping it from 140 degrees to 120 degrees could save $7 a month, according to Booth.
“Space heaters are good for a room, but not unplugging it when you leave the room can cost you ... if it ran for six hours a day (the cost) could be almost $45 a month for one space heater and customers can have multiple,” Booth said.
Reversing the setting on your ceiling fans, which pushes warmer air back down toward the floor level. and ensuring that they’re not in use when no one is in the room can also help customers save energy during this season. FPL also has rebates available on heat pumps for customers interested.
Avoid your emergency/auxiliary heat
Avoid changing your thermostat by more than two degrees at a time. Allow the new temperature to set before bumping it up further to help prevent the auxiliary heat from activating, which is even more costly to run than a heat pump.
“Running that emergency heat for about 12 hours a day can add $20 to your bill, if that happens a few days in a row it can really add up,” said Ragsdale. “Anything you can do to avoid the auxiliary heating setting on your heat pump will definitely help save.
“If you bump it from 66 to 68 degrees, let that run for a while and catch up and warm the home as opposed to coming in and trying to just set it to (increase by) 10 degrees," she continued. “That’s just going to kick on the emergency heat and really increase your bill.”
FPL's page highlighting cost saving tools and tips can be found here.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola cold weather heating cost savings Florida Power and Light
