1. Where is my money for electricity going?
Heating your home usually takes the biggest chunk out of your annual electric bill. In a typical home, most of the energy goes to heating your home. Our typical, all-electric customer spends about $900 (41%) on heating their home. Water heating is the next biggest expense. The typical family spends about $444 (23%) a year on hot water. A combination freezer refrigerator costs about $167 (9%) annually. Each year a typical family spends the following: about $175 (9%) on air-conditioning, $82 (4%) on clothes drying, $80 (4%) on lights, $32 (2%) on a range oven combination, $30 (2%) for the dishwasher (not including water) and $118 (6%) on all the other appliances.

2. Why is my bill so high when I'm never there?
An empty house will use more energy for heating than a house full of people. The heat given off from five people is about the amount of heat given off by a 500 watt electric portable space heater. In the wintertime your house uses more energy for heating than anything else. But in most heating systems it is the thermostat that decides when energy is used - not occupancy. You can't control the weather.  But by turning down your thermostat and improving your homes insulation is a sure way to reduce your power bill.

3. Why is my bill twice what it was last month?
The weather changed. A common cause of the higher bills is a change to colder weather. Colder outside temperatures increase the heat loss of your home for the same reason coats are needed on cold days - heat loss is faster. Check the average temperature for the billing period. If you don't know the average temperature in your billing period you can't make a fair comparison to other billing periods for the same house. We can provide this information on request. If weather data is not readily available to you, simply compare the average daily KWH this year with last year's as shown on your Franklin PUD bill.

You may have hot water leaks. If the average temperature was the same, one thing that could raise the bill quickly is a hot water leak.

The number of days between your meter readings fluctuates. Compare your current bill to your present bill based on KWH per day. If your KWH per day has doubled, and the weather is the same, please give us a call at 547-5591. We want to investigate the billing.

4. Why is my bill twice what it was last year at this time?
Look first to any significant changes that would increase usage of heating, air-conditioning, or hot water. If all the conditions are the same and your bill is twice as high, call (509) 547-5591.

5. Why is my bill higher than my neighbor's?
Neighbors are never the same. Your neighbor may have a cat. Some have to open the doors more for cats. Some have more kids that take more showers. Some neighbors like it warmer than others. Some have hot tubs and some don't. Some have well insulated homes and some don't. Some homes are two stories tall and some aren't. Some are mansions and some could fit in a back yard. Some have twice the windows that others have. It is hard to pin down and explain why one customer's bill is higher than another's because there are so many variables.

6. Could you check my meter? It is spinning out of control and I'm not using the electricity.
Your meter is probably working correctly. There is a greater than 99% chance that if it is not running right it will be running slow and giving you a lower bill- not a higher one. We will test your meter for accuracy if you request it. There may be a charge associated with the test. However, we believe you would be better off looking at other causes for a high bill.

If you've read the above paragraph and still believe it has to be the meter or you want to know more about meters, please give us a call at (509) 547-5591.

7. How can I reduce my heating costs?
Seal up cracks. Just as a buttoned coat is warmer than an open coat, so is a tight house warmer than a leaky one. Sealing up and weatherstripping is the most cost effective way to lower heating costs.
Seal and insulate ductwork. Ductwork often accounts for around 25% of the heat lost in a forced air system. These losses can be much more than 25% if the ductwork has fallen apart. Make sure your ductwork has not become disconnected and is now trying to heat the wind blowing through your attic and under-floor crawlspaces.

Insulate. If you want to make your home warmer and more efficient by adding insulation, we can help. We have Low Interest Loans. You should have about 12 inches of insulation in your attic. Walls and floors need a blanket of insulation as well.

Upgrade to energy efficient windows. We recommend a U-value of .35 or less. We also have Low Interest Loans for improving your windows.

Install a heat pump. You may reduce your heating bills 30 to 50% by using a heat pump instead of a forced air furnace with an air-conditioner.

Conserve. You may decide to modify your lifestyle by wearing sweaters, so you can turn down your thermostat. It is a good idea to make sure your exterior doors and windows are closing tightly. Another way to conserve is to take shorter showers and use less hot water for washing clothes.

8. Does it pay to replace windows?
Sometimes windows are a great buy when considering the whole picture. A replacement energy window may not save you money if it costs more than the energy saved. A replacement energy efficiency window averages about $22 a square foot and saves about $1.40 per square foot per year to go from a single pane to a double pane window. This means a simple payback of 16 years. (You can usually get free estimates for exact costs. They may be different than the rule-of-thumb above.) Some would say that windows are not a good investment if you consider only the energy savings as the reason for buying better windows. There are other reasons why buying energy efficient windows may be a good choice. Windows keep out neighborhood noises, keep you more comfortable, and improve the value of your home.

9. Why is my bill higher even when I use the fireplace a whole bunch?
Money goes like smoke up the fireplace chimney. If you do not have tight fitting glass doors on your fireplace, the fireplace could actually be increasing the electric heat portion of your bill. You may think this doesn't make sense, but consider that you most likely do not close the damper on your fireplace at night. Also consider that all night long the warm chimney is literally causing a thermal draft that continually forces a column of warm air out of the chimney. This in turn causes more cold outside air to come in through all the cracks in the home. Then the thermostat clicks on and tells your electric heating system to warm up that cold air. Solution: Put glass doors on your fireplace or quit using the fireplace and keep the damper closed. Otherwise your fireplace may not help reduce your bill.

10. What is the cost to run lights, appliances and other "whatchamacallits?"
We charge $.0731 for every 1000 per hour of use. With tax, it works out to about $0.08 for every KWH (kiloWatthour) you use. So ten (10) one-hundred-watt (100 W) bulbs burning outside would cost you about a $0.08 every hour. There are 720 hours in a month. So, 720 times(x) $0.08 would be $57.60 a month to operate 10-100 watt light bulbs. One 100 watt bulb burning for all month would be about $5.76. Lights burning inside give about 95% of their energy back as heat. So in the wintertime leaving lights on inside the house cost less than leaving them on in the summer. In the summer the excess heat will make the air-conditioner run more often.

Some appliances don't have watts listed on them. You can calculate the watts by multiplying the Amperes (Amps) by the volts. Labels on appliances almost always list the Amps and the voltage (usually 110 volts). Once you have watts and you estimate the hours, you multiply the watts by the hours to get watt-hours. Then divide by 1000 to get KWH. Then multiply the KWH by a $0.08 to get a quick estimate of the costs for running that appliance.