Once each month, the neighbors on our street get together to celebrate the birthdays for that month. At a recent gathering, a number of us started talking about our utility bills, comparing how much we were paying for electricity and gas services. We just paid our electric bill for August, which was pretty high because we had used the air conditioner most days that month. In our household, we have an ongoing conversation about what temperature we should set on the thermostat. I prefer it pretty cool (like 40 degrees), while my wife and daughter are comfortable at 98 degrees. We compromise at 72 degrees.
In our group conversation, some kept it at 72 degrees during the day but raised it to 75 degrees at night. Closing the vents for the basement and rooms not used for sleeping conserve the flow of cool air too. During the day, keeping the blinds closed on the sunny side of the house keeps the heat out as well. Ceiling fans circulate the cool air and are less expensive than running the air conditioner. Well, I thought we had exhausted the money saving ideas when Ron Ghilardi, N33, mentioned Blue Star Energy. Did you know that Blue Star Energy provides electricity to the common areas of Sun City at a substantial savings to our community per year? Blue Star now provides residential customers with electricity using the same distribution system as Com Ed. Ron shared an email with me that he received from Blue Star: “The [current] rate for renewable energy is $0.0743 per kWh, and the rate for our traditional energy plan is $0.0696 per kWh. Our website (www.bluestarenergy.com) shows these rates compared to ComEd’s current summer rate of $0.07837, or their average annual rate of $0.0771.” According to the Blue Star website, you can complete a transfer of service to them completely online without any disruption in service, and no one has to come to your house. I checked our August electric bill from Com Ed and noticed we could have saved over $20.00 if we had used a Blue Star plan. Thanks, Ron, for sharing this valuable money-saving idea.
We still need to hear from you on the topics you would like to see in the column, so keep those letters coming, folks. Send your ideas to: The Frugal Forum, P.O. Box, 693, Huntley, IL 60142 or by email to: thefrugalforum@gmail.com
