JEA Offers Tips to Keep Summer Bills from Heating Up

2016-06-17

Jacksonville, FL - With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees today, it is important to remember that as temperatures increase so can utility bills. Cooling systems have to run longer during the summer, even when the thermostat is set at a fixed temperature. In fact, cooling the house in the summer makes up almost 50 percent of the electric portion of the utility bill. JEA recommends these tips to save on your utility bill.

• Set the thermostat at 78 - 80 degrees in the summer and 3 -5 degrees higher when you are not home but don’t turn it off or you will lose your humidity control.
• Use insulated drapes, blinds, or shades on windows.  
• Always use the thermostat "auto" setting instead of the "on" setting for the air handler
• Use ceiling or box fans in occupied rooms in the summer to make it feel 3 to 5 degrees cooler. Because this will make you feel cooler, you can raise your air conditioning thermostat setting, which saves more money than the cost of running fans. Remember fans cool people not rooms
• Check and/or change/clean air filters monthly. JEA recommends that you only use the filter size and type that are recommended in your HVAC system owner’s manual.
• Seal the leaks in your duct work. Don't forget the leaks around the air handler unit. 
• Weather strip doors and windows. Repair or replace broken or cracked windows. If you add up all the leaks in a typical home it would be a basketball-size hole in the side of your house
• Install a programmable thermostat if no one is routinely in your home during the day to take advantage of temperature setbacks automatically. 

Hot weather requires more energy usage to keep your home comfortable for you and your family, which can cause high bill spikes. With JEA MyBudget, you can even out these spikes and pay about the same amount for your utility bill throughout the year. JEA MyBudget is a levelized payment plan that evens out your monthly utility bill by taking a rolling average of your last 12 bills. By averaging your monthly consumption over a 12-month period, your bill will remain about the same, even in very hot months when your usage may be higher.

• JEA’s all-time summer peak was set in August 7, 2007 at 2,937MW
• Last year (2015) the summer peak was 2,683.  Similar peaks in prior years:  2,693 and 2,654 in 2014 and 2013 respectively.
• This week (on Monday) we hit 2,790 MW.  

JEA is the eighth-largest community-owned electric utility in the United States and one of the largest water and sewer utilities in the nation providing electric, water and sewer service to residents and businesses in northeast Florida. 

Category:

• conservation
• customer
• electric
• ways to save