Managing High Summer Energy Costs

It didn’t seem possible, but it’s true: this summer, energy costs are even higher. We’ll walk through some ideas with coping with the heat and the resulting cost.

Many areas of the nation are experiencing record highs and air conditioning is costing us even more. The Energy Information Administration, the statistical division of the U.S. Department of Energy, predicts that the price of electricity will climb about 2.6 percent during 2007 and demand for electric power will grow about 1.5 percent during the year. In hard numbers, this means that if you paid $150 for electricity for central air conditioning in a 2,000-square-foot house in each of the summer months of 2006, your bill would be $153.90 for those months this year. It may not seem like much when you look at it like that, but picture that amount multiplied by the increase in the number of households in the United States and you get hundreds of millions of dollars.

A recent Realty Times article discusses these rising energy costs and ways we can manage them. Higher energy costs typically affect low- and moderate-income homeowners the most. Diane-Louise Wormley, overseer of a program to improve Philadelphia neighborhoods, says a key to making homeownership affordable for younger buyers is to make these older houses energy efficient so that “everything won’t be going to the gas company.”

Some neighborhoods, such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, have programs that include an energy assessment of homes to try and lower heating and cooling costs. BASF, a German-based chemical company, built a “near-zero energy” house in Paterson, N.J., and is working to bring the technology used in that house to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in other cities. Jack Armstrong, a business manager who oversaw the project, says that a zero-energy home can be “cash-flow positive” to the homeowner from day one. Although achieving this level of energy efficiency can increase mortgage payments from $45 to $90 a month, it can also save up to $140 a month on utility bills.

These may be good long-term solutions, but what about this summer? One option, if nights are significantly cooler where you live, is to shut your air conditioning off at night, open your windows and use a whole-house fan to bring the cool air inside. You should also make sure your air conditioning unit, whether a central unit or a window unit, is properly maintained so it operates as efficiently as possible. (See our Tip of the Month for instructions on proper A/C maintenance.) This means cleaning or replacing filters monthly and cleaning the coils.

In the daytime, you should keep your house shut tight to avoid letting in unwanted heat and humidity. If possible, you should also close curtains or blinds to keep the sun from blaring in. Ronnie Kweller of the non-profit Alliance to Save Energy in Washington also recommends not operating a dehumidifier at the same time as the air conditioner since the dehumidifier will increase the cooling load and force the air conditioner to work harder.

If your area is prone to blackouts, try to shift tasks that use a lot of energy, like laundry and running the dishwasher to off-peak energy times to increase electricity reliability, Kweller adds. If possible, you should also only do full loads of dishes and laundry to increase the efficiency of your appliances. Additionally, Kweller says, if you have an older, inefficient top-loading washer, wash your clothes in cold water. Doing so could save up to $63 a year, and “detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.” To increase the efficiency of your dryer, clean the lint filter after every load. This also reduces the chances of a fire.

Kweller also recommends keeping lamps, televisions and other appliances away form your thermostat, as the heat they generate will cause the unit to run longer, which runs up your bills. Finally, when you leave a room, shut off the lights. The heat from lights can also increase cooling costs.

Unless you turn your home into a zero-energy home now, you probably won’t avoid high summer energy costs. But the above tips can go a long way toward making your energy costs less.

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