During the month of December 2009, a massive snow storm struck our area and the average temperature was well below normal.  Then, in January, an arctic air mass moved into Western North Carolina and brought the coldest air we have seen in years.  For fifteen days, the “lows” dipped into the teens and even into single digits a couple of nights, while the “highs” stayed below freezing.

Since electricity use is largely weather-driven, French Broad Electric Cooperative members are seeing higher than normal power bills.   The frigid temperatures cause heating systems to work harder and longer, thus using more electricity. 

When the temperature drops below freezing, heat pumps simply cannot produce enough heat to keep your house comfortable without using the supplemental electric strip heat.  A single heat pump system typically contains 15 kW of strip heat, and on those days when the highs were in the low 20’s, it ran most of the day and night.  When this happens, the system consumes a tremendous amount of electricity on a daily basis.  In fact, it was not uncommon to see the electric strip heat run for up to 18 hours in a 24 hour period, costing our members $30 per day! 

Ground water is also colder this time of year, which causes electric hot water heaters to run for longer periods of time.  On top of that, with the weather being so cold, many people choose to stay indoors and use more electrical devices for entertainment. 

To make matters worse, most of our customers had more days of service on their January bill than usual, which was due to all of our crews, as well as our meter readers and billing department personnel, working to restore power during the snow storm.  This changed our billing schedule and caused most of our customers to observe an additional five days on their January bill, as compared to last year.

 The simple fact is, when it is this cold for a long period of time, it takes more fuel or electricity to heat a home or business; however, there are some things you can do to minimize the amount of electricity you use: