Friday 25 January 2013

THE SHOCKING TRUTH OF ELECTRICITY PRICES.

I usually write about my books on this blog but this is a serious matter for all Albertans. In fact, everybody in the world is experiencing higher energy costs. What alarms me is that the system in my province is rigged so we don't get the power savings that we should.

Joe Anglin is a Member of the Legislature of Alberta for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre. He also is a strong opponent of the governing Progressive Conservative Party's plan to export power to America and make us pay for the lines. In his YouTube presentation, Alberta Prices and Transmission Costs, a series of four videos, he describes in detail how the government has set up the system so that customers pay a higher price for electricity than they need to.

I was shocked when I saw how high my electricity bills had soared in 2012. A year earlier, my total charge was around $70.00. A year later, I was paying more than double that amount. Even with switching to LED lighting and turning off power bars in rooms where I usually didn't go, my bills remained painfully high.

While thinking over how I could lower my monthly bills, I realized that the gas heater might be able to warm the house sufficiently that I wouldn't need the furnace during the day. My practice of turning the thermostat down in the morning and up before bed is paying off. The December bill was around $87.00, a marked improvement from the previous year

Since natural gas is relatively cheap, I save money by not running the furnace fan all day. I need to do it at night as the bedroom doesn't have its own gas heater. Even so, the reduction inn power consumption is dramatic.

Adding to the savings is that I hang my clothes on a makeshift line in the basement. Dryers use too much electricity so I take advantage of my basement line.

Thanks to the folks at The Dollar Stretcher, I learned that putting bottles of water in the empty spaces in my fridge would help it run more efficiently. In addition, I have water in the event of a prolonged power outage. I use well water and the only way I can access the water is when the pump has electricity. This cold-saving method is another way that I try to save on my power bills.

As for where my newly-published How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity can be found online, visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm.

2 comments:

  1. Natural gas cheap? Not here! I bet my December bill is around 300 dollars AT LEAST! I don't think I have EVER had an electric bill less than 100 even in the winter. It can get up to 500 in the summer! I am surprised that we are seeing petrol at less than 3 dollars a gallon right now, too. And we are in a drought, so water bills are sky high, too.

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  2. My next door neighbors said they were paying $500.00 a month for power, but last summer, they had new insulation and doors installed, and now their monthly charges have been drastically decreased. I'm glad that for some people, there are ways to lower energy costs.

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