(Files by Cole Kelly-MyPGNow)
Bob Gammer, spokesperson for BC Hydro, said there are a number of ways customers can keep the winter blues from hitting their wallets.
“Any time when we have winter weather people should use their programmable thermostats, if you don’t have one, they aren’t that expensive and they start to pay for themselves in just a couple of years,” he said.
“Program your thermostat, or at least turn it down when you’re away at work and then turn it up when you’re at home. A comfortable temperature is around 20 degrees, every degree above 20 is a 5% increase in your bill. So consider throwing on a sweater or using your slippers instead of turning the heat up.”
Christmas light displays can also play a big part in those hefty bills, said Gammer.
“Some Christmas light displays are growing as large as 100,000 lights.”
He said using LED lighting makes a significant difference.
“We found when there was a wide adoption of LED lights back around 2009-2011 we saw a 40% drop in the amount of power used in outdoor Christmas lights.”
“If people are familiar with the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the character there had Christmas lights all over his house and property, we estimate it would have cost him $4700.00 to light that up for the Christmas season. If he’d used LED lights, it would have been somewhere in the ballpark of $50.00.”
Bc Hydro has released a list of tips for keeping your energy bills in check, which you can find it here.