Homeowner Sweat Equity a Must
in Battle Against Higher Energy Costs
by
MAURI MONTGOMERY
Consumer apathy in personal residential energy management eventually leads to sticker shock, frowns and sometimes damning social media posts that aren’t renowned for providing the whole story.
Below are samples of the more common member reactions to higher-than-expected electric bills—a relevant gauge of their natural exasperation , but also their misunderstanding for how energy costs are brought to bear.
All of that aside, United will never cease trying to find ways to reach and help members who are bewildered by higher bills that often follow severe weather swings, nor will the cooperative stop apprising its membership in advance about turbulent swings in energy sector costs.
Even though we are now at the threshold of spring and warmer climes, when billing went out to members in February, those bills reflected both a sustained period of daily sub-freezing temperatures, as well as wholesale power costs that have been trending higher across the Texas electric market and the nation—energy costs that have risen to their highest level since 2008.
United doesn’t have much control over either predicament, but the cooperative has alluded many times to the fact 70-80 percent of every member’s bill stems from the cost of wholesale energy United is required to purchase from generation and transmission provider Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, and which United distributes to members without markup. In other words, the Brazos energy charge, along with a member’s kWh usage, represent the bulk of every monthly electric bill.
Despite the cooperative’s advance warnings about both of those developments, energy usage went up for most members during the colder weather period in February (heating systems cycled more frequently), and so did the relevant pass-through costs for higher wholesale energy.
And as we all know, North Texas weather annually has two extremes—frigid cold and sizzling hot. The next punishing weather extreme, and the prospect of higher kWh usage, is always just around the corner. Those periods hit our pocketbooks even harder when energy costs are on the rise, as they are today.
Over the past 15 years, United has utilized every feasible communications avenue to inform and educate members about ways to waste less electric energy, or how to manage energy usage more wisely—no matter the timing or circumstance. The reason: even in the best circumstances, power cost and usage account for most of a monthly bill.
In tandem with that communications effort, the cooperative has made many resources available to members that can aid, and have aided, many members in such efficiency improvements and with no other caveat than asking a member to call a local office and indicate their interest in receiving the expertise United can provide. Help has always been just that simple to come by.
The best example of United’s lasting commitment to help members better understand and improve residential energy efficiency at their homes falls squarely on the cooperative’s free home energy audit program, and a thorough examination of a home’s weaknesses in energy efficiency.
Free home energy audits are a rarity among electric utilities. More often, consumers are asked to pay for such services, especially in investor-owned utility spheres. Due to that fact, United’s home energy audit program remains as the longstanding workhorse among many value-added services that are offered annually to the membership.
Through the first week of March, and barely two months into a new year, cooperative energy advisors had already feverishly conducted 325 home energy audits, bringing the all-time total to 13,169—with a significant rise in those totals expected by the end of March.
All in a Day’s Work
Beyond finding the usual inefficiencies such as dirty HVAC filters and thermostats set too high, inadequate caulking and residential insulation, United’s energy advisors discovered a few more unusual causes associated with high bill complaints as the throes of winter were being experienced across North Texas this year.
1. I’m providing a picture of one of the weirdest circumstances I have found in the last two months. The members didn’t have a heat pump, so the AC should not have been operating. I opened up the air handler door and found a solid block of ice around the A-coil. The entire refrigerant line was frozen all the way to the outside unit. I suspected the A/C was operating with the heating unit. I didn’t turn the unit on to test this theory. The A-coil was so clogged with ice build-up, the air could not pass through the air handler.
2. Instances of heating elements coming on when they shouldn’t. We have found that many members have heat pumps that are not working properly—the heating elements are coming on and staying on.
3. We have found instances where members have changed out their thermostats themselves, and they didn’t install a thermostat compatible with their heat pump. Instead, they installed thermostats that only have heat, off, and cool settings. When they turn on their heat, the settings call on the auxiliary heat strips. Their heat pumps are not coming on prior to emergency heat being activated. One member asked, “Is this why there was an extra wire? I couldn’t figure out where that one went.”
4. An energy advisor visited a member home and found dogs in the yard. Everything the dogs could find to chew on was strung around the yard and shredded to pieces. Looking at the mobile home, there were places where the skirting was completely removed. Before getting out of the truck, the energy advisor knew the first place he would look was under the home. He figured the members’ air ducts were under the home, and sure enough, the dogs had torn up the cross-over duct that connects the two sides of the home. When the energy advisor bent down to look under the home, he could feel heat pouring out from under the home.
5.One member used 11,000 kWh in one month. They had a barn next to the home that they were trying to heat for stray cats. They had installed a central HVAC system for the barn (electric resistance heat) that had no insulation, and the heat in the barn was set as if it was in a well-insulated home. It was running all the time. All the cats were outside soaking up the sunshine when I pulled up.