Cold winter weather can send your furnace into overdrive — causing your energy usage and electric bill to go up. That’s especially true if you heat your home with electricity, even if your thermostat setting remains the same.
New Year, New Energy-Efficiency Habits
Here are a few low- and no-cost things you can do around the house to help save energy and money during the colder months:
- Lower your thermostat during the day when no one is home and overnight while you are sleeping.
- Consider using a smart thermostat to keep tabs on the temperature in your home — whether you’re away or asleep.
- Run your ceiling fans clockwise throughout the winter — this pushes warm air down and gives your furnace a break.
- Check your furnace filter, especially if it’s been more than 90 days since you replaced it. A new, clean filter helps your furnace run as efficiently as possible.
- Let the sun in. Open curtains or blinds on windows receiving direct sunlight. Close curtains or blinds tightly at night or on cloudy days to reduce heat loss.
Minimize Bill Surprises
You can also prepare for and minimize changes to your monthly electric bill:
- Enroll in our AMP (Average Monthly Payment) Plan*: AMP evens out payments throughout the year to account for seasonal spikes in usage. Bills adjust on a 12-month rolling average and change only slightly each month, making payments more predictable.
- Monitor Your Energy Usage: Check your Energy Dashboard to compare your daily and month-to-month electric usage, see your highest usage days, sign up for high bill alerts and get personalized savings tips.
Reach Out to Our Team
If you need help with your electric bill, give our Customer Solutions Team a call at 800-672-2231 to talk through options or visit AEPOhio.com/Assistance to find the right solution for your situation.
*AMP is only applicable to AEP Ohio charges. If you participate in Ohio Choice and want to enroll in a budget plan for generation charges, please contact your generation provider.
We do not have a budget to spend on a backup plan. Like last time, we are not prepared financially for winter. We are all disabled. Do you know if there will be warming centers. Thank you.
Margaret, please reach out to our customer solutions team at 800-672-2231 to discuss possible ways we can help. When warming shelters are open, we list them on our outage map.
My husband is disabled and dependent on an oxygen concentrator 24 hours everyday. We’ve purchased a generator but we need assistance getting everything hooked up and running if we lose power. That’s my biggest concern.
I’m not sure why my 800 Sq ft apartment is heating with electricity I sit in the dark I never plug anything in until I am ready to use it and my electricity bill is over 300 $ it wasn’t that much when my husband was alive 26 months ago this is absolutely crazy
very helpful.
Thanks for all you do!