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Beat the heat: Summertime weather brings with it big bills
Published Friday, June 12, 2009
The first day of summer is approaching, bringing high temperatures and with them, high power bills.
Keeping a house cool is a tough job during an Alabama summer, and especially tough on the wallet.
“Definitely air conditioning does increase a customer’s power bill,” Jan Ellis, spokeswoman for Alabama Power, said.
According to Ellis, one of the simplest ways to ensure efficiency on a heating and cooling system is to regularly replace the air filter.
Also, constantly adjusting your thermostat can waste energy, so Ellis suggested keeping it on a set temperature. Using your ceiling fans can allow you to set your thermostat a few degrees higher than normal.
Ellis said your hot water heater is the second-largest energy user in your home. Insulating your electric water heater and cutting hot water consumption are ways to cut energy use. You can install a flow control or regulator on your shower, saving two to four gallons of water per minute.
To help prevent customers from receiving higher power bills in the summer months, Alabama Power offers budget billing, a concept designed to even out fluctuations in customers’ monthly payments.
“Budget billing averages the bill out over a 12-month time period,” Ellis said.
She said the budget billing program is good for customers who have a dual system, such as those who use gas heat and electric air conditioning.
Alabama Power is a summer-peaking utility.
“The majority of the customers have electric air conditioning,” Ellis said. “In winter customers have gas and propane heating.”
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Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on June 12, 2009 at 11:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
That last statement is like, when you have a flat tire and someone walks up to you, and asks, "Got a flat?" How many folks out there, have gas air conditioning? HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!
Posted by November162000 (anonymous) on June 13, 2009 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, actually, there is such a thing as a gas air conditioner. Also many, if not most, travel trailers and RV's have gas refrigerators. At least the one's that don't have a generator do.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on June 13, 2009 at 12:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Those are specialty items, and are not designed for sustained log term use. Their life expectancy is very short and triple the price of a traditional electric setup. Didn't say they didn't exist. How many use them as the ONLY source for cooling a home or business. NONE. You think electricity is expensive, run a propane reefer all day long. You forgot diesel reeefer units on commercial trailers. They keep chickens, ice, flowers, fruit, etc... cold. But the maintenance cost and operating cost are high.
Posted by November162000 (anonymous) on June 13, 2009 at 1:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The last time I was in Kuwait that was how our tents were air conditioned. The ammonia heaters were natural gas fired. It was much more quiet and efficient than running large generators to operate conventional a/c's. Plus, the same heat was used for heating water, though we didn't need much hot water since the air during the day was at times 136F. Of course, there were electrical generators, too, but they didn't have to be as large since they weren't having to operate a/c's. I didn't forget about diesel reefers, the insinuation that I took was that there was no such thing as gas air conditioning, which had nothing to do with diesel generators. You might not find them in many homes around here, but they are actually fairly common in various applications.
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