Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Power Manager can save on your Electric Bill


Well, my household just signed up for the Power Manager program through our electric provider, Duke Energy. If you live in the state of Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana and are a Duke Energy customer, click here to read about the program. You can also sign up here, too.
If you live in Texas and use Austin Energy, click here for their program.
If you live in Wisconsin and use WE Energy, click here for their program (it is up to a $50 credit ).
If you live in Illinios and use ComEd, click here for their program ( they give you $20 credit for the 50% program and $40 credit for the 100% program.
If you find out your provider offers this service, leave a comment so I can add it to the post.
Basically, they give us a one time credit of $25 for signing up ( love that ) and then it will lower our electric bill through the months of May to September. They actually come out to our house and install a box on our air conditioner unit.


This box will then turn our air conditioner off from the outside for a few minutes 5 to 10 times during the day. We then get credited everytime this happens. The indoor fans will keep running so that the air inside keeps circulating, thus keeping the house cooler still. They claim you will not feel much of a difference ( I will be curious to see ).


They only do this Monday thru Friday ( no weekends or Holidays). So, for those of you who work outside of the house all day, this would be an even better plan for you. The minimal fluctuation in the temperature during the day wouldn't even be noticed..since no one is home!


And, if you know you are going to need to have the air running all day ( having a party, lots of people in the hosue, etc ) you can notify them to make sure they don't run the Power Manager that day.


So, what is the benefit BESIDES you save money? It reduces power use during high demand and will help it go to other areas in the community it is needed. Duke Energy also claims it will help keep electricity costs low, since it will delay them having to build new power plants. This, in turns, helps the environment.


Based on all these reasons, I am willing to sign up and see how it goes. It isn't a contract, so if it isn't working out, I will cancel. But, for the $25 credit alone...I will try! Plus, if I can help the environment a little by using less power, makes me feel even better. Besides, during the day, I am up at the pool with the kids most of the time anyway, so the minimal air changes won't be noticed.


If you are one of my readers from another state, make sure to log onto our electric suppliers website. You may be surprised to see they are offering energy saving programs that will benefit you, too. If you find yours is ( or any other beneficial electric cost saving program ), comment below.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

As a long time customer of WE energies, I have been signed up for a few programs- one is time of use- I pay more from 7am-7pm, but much less from 7pm to 7 am. However, we have always saved money on our utilities by doing this as we run our dishwasher, cooking/ baking (just warm up dishes in the microwave) and washing machine after 7 pm and on the weekends. I am also signed up for the summer air condition program where you can choose to volunteer to have your air turned off on heavy load days-(we've never had it turned off) several programs to choose from- we get a 50 credit for the whole summer.

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

Thanks...I will add this to my post as a provider.

E said...

Interesting, does ComEd in Illinois have a similar program?

Also, unrelated, but regarding transerring Rx back and forth from one store to another to get the gift cards; I always thought that didn't count b/c when you transfer OUT of one chain, they still keep your record on file but it is just inactivated, and the coupons say that the Rx cannot have been filled at a previous location of the same chain. Have you had trouble with that?

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

Hi E,

ComEd does offer a similar program. You get $20 off each summer if you sign up for their 50% program or $40 off each summer if you sign up for the 100% plan. Here is the link. I will also add it to the post for other users of ComEd.
http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/comed/comedres/energy_education/environmental_programs.htm

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

E,
Also on the prescription transfers...I have never had a problem transferring back and forth and I have been doing it for years.
When they mean it can't be from the same store in a chain...they mean that immediate transfer. SO, if you were transferring from Main Street CVS to 2nd Street CVS...they would't let you use it. You need to be transferring from another Retail Store ( such as a Walgreens, Kroger, RiteAid...whereever ). So, I go back and forth. As long as the last time you got it filled it was being transferred in, they will let you use the coupon...even if you had it filled there before.

Laura said...

Georgia Power in Georgia does this also with a $20 credit. They also do "budget billing" where they take the average of your use and that's what you will pay every month, which is great if you want to budget and know how much to pay every month.

 
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