You’re wearing two sweaters, sitting in your house, freezing your butt off trying to save on electricity. On top of that, you don’t even know if you have the best possible electricity plan for your needs. If you’re looking for how to save on heating costs in apartments, we’ve got you covered!
Shivering in your dark house, you wonder:
“Should electricity be this expensive?”
“Are all of my neighbors freezing their butts off?”
“Should I just start burning money to stay warm?”
NO!
There’s a better way! With Power Wizard’s Tool, you can take off one of your sweaters and turn up the thermostat! Our Shopping Tool can help you find the best electric plan in just minutes!
Several different factors go into setting the electricity costs in Texas.
The individual electric company you as the consumer buy electricity from is called a Retail Electric Provider (REP). The Retail Electric Provider buys electricity at a wholesale rate and then adds a margin to the wholesale rate so the Retail Electric Provider makes a profit when they sell it to you as the consumer.
Electricity in many Texas cities is deregulated. This means that the government doesn’t have as much control of electric utilities as it does in regulated cities.
The government has allowed individual companies to sell electricity directly to consumers. Now, consumers get to choose who to buy electricity from.
Because of this, there are over 130 Retail Electric Companies (REPs – aka electricity companies) competing to sell electricity.
Not all cities have deregulated electricity. For example, San Antonio is regulated.
Since there are 130+ Retail Electric Providers, there are thousands of electricity plans. Each REP offers multiple electricity plans that you can choose from based on the rate, incentives, and your personal needs.
With so many Retail Electric Providers and plans available because of deregulation, the Retail Electric Providers compete with one another to try to win your business.
Retail Electric Providers tend to set their rates so they are competitive with the other Retail Electric Providers that are offering service in the same area while at the same time making a profit.
Deregulation does not necessarily make kWh rates low but Retail Electric Providers do generally stay within range of each other in an effort to remain competitive.
Some Retail Electric Providers offer special plan features such as free nights and weekends.
Other REPs give you a gift or incentive if you decide to sign up with them. For example, you may receive a free Google Home if you sign up for a specific plan.
It also means that you can shop and compare all of the different Retail Electric Providers and the plans that each offers to figure out which plan is the best for your individual needs.
When the temperatures drop outside, you want to heat up your apartment to stay warm inside. At the same time, you don’t want to pay a fortune for electricity in the process.
Here are 10 tips on how to save on heating costs in an apartment and lower your electricity bill — all while staying warm.
Turn down the thermostat 10 degrees while you are sleeping, at work, or out of the house for extended periods of time. This can help to reduce your electricity bill by as much as 10%.
During the hours that you are home, turn the thermostat down as low as you can tolerate. This can also save you some money on your electric bill.
Flip the switch on your ceiling fan to reverse it (heat setting). This will push the rising warm air back down into the room and can help reduce your electricity bill.
Dress warmer or put on more clothing. Put on a sweatshirt or sweater over your shirt. Put socks or slippers on your feet. Adding clothing helps to trap the heat in your body to keep you warm so you won’t have to keep the thermostat at such a high level.
If you can feel cold air leaking in from closed windows and doors, then you need to fix the window and door seals.
If you are renting an apartment, talk with the landlord or management office about fixing the seals. Otherwise, you easily seal the windows and doors yourself with supplies from a local hardware store.
Sealing leaks around windows and doors helps to keep the cold air outside and the hot air inside.
Change the filters in your heating unit monthly. If you are renting, the maintenance office might change the filters for you. Otherwise, you can purchase filters and change them out yourself.
Hang curtains, drapes, or blinds on your windows. Keep them closed during the winter months to help keep the cold air out if you have drafty windows. If you do not have air leaking in through your windows, then you can open blinds, curtains, and drapes to let the sunshine in to warm the room.
When you use your stove and oven to cook, it has the tendency to heat up your apartment. When you do bake in the oven, take the items out when done and leave the oven door open.
This allows the hot air from the oven to warm up your apartment while the oven is cooling off. The extra hot air keeps your thermostat from kicking on as much and as often.
Make sure that rugs, furniture, or other items are not blocking your vents. If vents are blocked by these types of items then the warm or hot air cannot flow freely into the room.
This can cause the room to feel cold and make the heater work even harder and run longer to try to heat up the room. A harder working heater and one that is running longer than necessary can rack up your electricity bill.
Dust acts as insulation. If your heat vents are dusty then it insulates the vent and traps the warm air so that it does not enter the apartment. Dust trapping the air and keeping it from flowing into the room can make the heater work harder and run longer trying to heat up the room.
Again, this drives the cost of electricity up to heat your apartment.
You can install plastic window treatments to single pane windows in your apartment. The plastic acts as insulation. It keeps the cold air outside and the warm air inside.
Keeping the cold air out and the warm air in can help to keep your heater from working overtime and can cut down your heating expenses during the winter months.
You may also be able to save money by switching electricity plans. It might be that you can switch plans with the same electricity company.
It might be that to get into a better electricity plan that you have to change to a plan with a completely different electricity company than the one you are with now.
You might think that you should find an electricity plan with a lower kWh rate than you are paying now and that is how you can save money.
This is not necessarily the case.
The cheapest rate is not always the best plan for you.
Instead, you should consider the various types of electricity plans that are available and match the features of the plans for your needs.
Let’s take Bonnie, for example. Bonnie is currently living in an apartment in the downtown Dallas area. She is a nurse and works nights and weekends.
She is currently on a plan that has free nights and weekends. That’s great for someone who works all day and is at home on nights and weekends but this someone is not Bonnie.
Bonnie’s kWh rate is okay but her free nights and weekends are not doing her any good since she is not home anyway.
Several different types of electricity plans exist. Each type of plan has its own advantages and disadvantages so you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of each to choose the best plan for you.
A fixed-rate plan has a rate that doesn’t change for the extent of your contract. You pay the same rate for the entire term(12, 24, or 36 months, for example).
A variable-rate plan changes throughout the term of your contract. Generally, the rate is tied to an index so as the index increases, your rate increases. Likewise, if the index decreases then your rate decreases.
A month-to-month plan does not have a long-term contract (12 months, 24 months, or 26 months, for example). Generally, a month-to-month plan has a variable rate. It may also be a prepaid electricity account or a pay-as-you-go electricity plan.
Prepaid electricity plans require you to pay for your electricity before you use it. A standard plan bills you after your electricity usage. With a prepaid plan, you pay ahead of time and then as you use electricity, the bill amount is deducted from your prepaid account.
You may also hear prepaid electricity plans referred to as pay-as-you-go electricity plans. These plans tend to be month-to-month plans as well, so you are not locked into a long-term contract.
There are many different types of electricity plans available. You will need to shop around to make sure to get the electricity plan that fits your needs the best.
There are numerous factors that go into figuring out which is the best plan for saving on heating an apartment. The best plan varies from person to person depending on their situation.
It also varies by the apartment.
No two people and no two apartments use electricity in the same way.
Remember, the plan with the cheapest kWh rate does not always equal the best electricity plan. What is best for one family or individual varies according to their own unique circumstances.
It’s really hard to choose the best electricity plan for an apartment based on your usage alone.
Many plans have:
The best plan for one person may not be the best fit for another person so you need to take all of these factors into consideration in addition to:
There are two primary ways to find the best electricity plan for an apartment.
If creating Excel spreadsheets is your idea of a good time, then the manual search process may be the way to go for you (even then, though, this is an exhaustive process that requires a ton of analysis).
The manual search can cause a lot of stress, confusion, headaches, and wasted time.
The Power Wizard Shopping Tool can help you find the right plan for you when all of the relevant factors are taken into consideration (usage, type of features you care about, etc.). Give it a try!
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