Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
Several recent writings in this newspaper complained about much-higher-than-normal electricity costs this winter. They also mentioned Delmarva Power specifically. My electricity supplier is the Delaware Electric Cooperative, and I noticed no notable big increase in what I pay for electricity use this winter. And I am not using electricity much differently than in past years.
If it is critical for you to reduce costs for heat, there are a few easy things you can do if you prepare ahead of time. If possible, give up heating the whole house and move everyone into one room or into the basement if it has a small room with good walls. Heat the one-room space with a one-room electric space heater. That heat should cost about 20-35 cents, maximum, per hour. That is less than $8 per day, or less than $240 per month. (My worst-ever whole-house electric heat pump bill was $350 for one winter month.) In actual measurements I made, the thermostat on my one-room space heater was on about half the time, so that would cut the $240 down to $120 per month. Of course, my figures for cost per hour are very rough. To get your actual rate, look at your bill for your kilowatt-hours used and divide by your dollars you need to pay. Other factors specific to my house will be different, to some degree, than factors for your specific situation. Day degrees will also be a big factor. Being late in the season, however, you may have trouble finding an electric space heater if you don’t already have one.
Getting a gas- or oil-powered residential room heater will work, but you must also get a digital carbon monoxide meter and a digital carbon dioxide meter (and read them regularly), or you might kill yourself from excess carbon monoxide (toxic at 100 parts per million) or carbon dioxide (toxic at 5,000 parts per million). Also, fossil fuel is not cheap, either, so you will have to do that calculation, too. Don’t tell Donald Trump I said something bad about fossil energy, or he will order me to be arrested.
You should try turning the heat down as much as you can — and pile on more blankets — at night when you are sleeping. Also, if you use more blankets, sweaters and gloves, then you might be able to lower your thermostat a few degrees, and that will help reduce your bill more than you might think.
If you have an electric hot water heater, turn it off. Organize all your hot water needs for one hour of the day and turn the hot water heater on a half-hour to an hour before your needs. Then, turn it back off when you don’t need hot water anymore. In my experience, this can cut around $15 or more from your monthly electric bill.
A problem with most heat pumps is that, as outside temperatures go down, the temperature of air coming out of the inside ducts goes down proportionately, too. That inside duct air temperature can become lower than you would like. My present heat pump compressor automatically shuts off around an outside temperature of 25-30 degrees and automatically turns on the more expensive, built-in resistance heat. And your electric bill will go up more than you think it should. If whole subdivisions are on heat pumps, and a freak deep-cold wave hits, then the power grid can get overloaded, as the total power draw doubles or triples, and the grid collapses. Some 25 years ago, this happened to us at our previous house. Restoring power took two days.
If you want to blame something or somebody for high electric bills, then my suggestion is to look at corporate greed and fixations on political preferences for certain kinds of economic systems that increase the profits for the few by increasing costs for the many. Here are titles of two free internet articles that will tell you what is really going on: “Utilities Don’t Want You to Know This Reason Why Your Power Bills Are So Expensive” and “Leaked: US power companies secretly spending millions to protect profits and fight clean energy.”
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
