How Temperature Change Impacts Your Electric Bill

With the current state of the US economy, managing your utility bill can help you stay within your monthly budget. You are probably well aware of the fact that your monthly electricity bill is going to decrease or increase by virtue of the different seasons.  Reducing the amount of electricity that is used is a common concern among homeowners and renters who have to pay for it.

It’s safe to say that for most of us, we are going to pay more in the summer for electricity because we need our air conditioning. Those costs drop dramatically in the winter, provided your furnace or heating system is not electrically operated.  Even if you are on some type of fixed rate plan and you keep your thermostat at the same setting (give or take a few degrees), you are still going to see fluctuations in the amount of your electricity bill.  So what exactly is it that causes that monthly bill to fluctuate the way it does?

We are all aware of the fact that summertime means moderately warmer to extremely hotter weather, and that we are going to run our air conditioning more frequently.  This is going to result in more electricity usage. Even if your thermostat is set to 72° throughout the year, those generators that supply power to your home will have to work harder in the summer than in the winter.

For example, let’s say it is summertime and 100° outside. Your thermostat is set at 72°.  That’s a 28° difference that the generators have to compensate for. Now let’s switch the scenario to wintertime and an outdoor temperature of 68°. That’s only 4° that the generators have to compensate for. The bottom line is that the generators are working nearly 4 times harder in the summer than in the winter.  This is the primary reason that electricity bills are more expensive in summer than winter.

Additionally, the above example also applies to creating that electricity. When your home requires more, that additional supply has to originate somewhere. One of two things has to happen to compensate for that increased electricity usage. Either the existing generators have to work that much harder or additional generators need to be operating at the power source.

So while you are consuming more electricity in the summer, the costs involved with generating that additional electricity increases as well.

You want to remember that there are dozens of sources of valuable information online that you can refer to in order to sensibly use your electricity without driving the price of it through the roof. Look for more articles on energy savings from the www.bellbroshvac.com blog.