Summer heat leads to high electric bill costs: How to cut costs and save

The summer heat could also mean high electric bills for many across western Pennsylvania. “It’s been a really hot summer. It’s the first and most obvious part of the answer,” Duquesne Light Company spokesperson Matt Neistein said. “It’s been a really hot summer, and people are running their air conditioners and fans and other devices, and that naturally increases their power bills.”According to officials with Duquesne Light and FirstEnergy, there are ways you can manage that.”We don’t want people to be scared of opening up an envelope from us,” FirstEnergy spokesperson Todd Meyers said. Some quick things you can do to stay cool without cranking up the air conditioning: Raising the temperature on your thermostat a couple of degreesChanging dirty filters in your air conditionerClose doors to rooms you are not usingUse a fan to help air circulateTurn off lights and unplug electronic devices you are not usingLong-term options include getting a smart thermostat and even planting a tree to help absorb sunlight.You can also do something called a “price to compare” and maybe find a better rate for your power supplier. “You can look at the price per kilowatt hour on our bill, and then you can see the different deals that are out there and you may find something that’s less expensive,” Meyers said. “You may be able to shop, and you might be able to find a product out there that’s less expensive than our default product. And it doesn’t matter to us where you get it, because our business is getting it to you.”However, Meyers encourages people to always look at the fine print.”They may be getting into something that’s an introductory offer for three months, and then it goes to what they call a variable rate. And guess what? On hot days like today, that power rate is higher. The electricity rate is higher than it would be. It’s moving up or down all the time,” Meyers said.Either way, leaders with Duquesne Light and FirstEnergy said they are here to help. “We try to make it as clear as we can for folks that this is the part of the bill that we control, and here’s the part of the bill that we don’t control, and regardless of how those balance out, we still are here to help with the overall bill,” Neistein said.To learn more about the “price to compare” option, click here.