Our electric bill is always higher in the winter. We heat with wood but the blower for the furnace (forced hot air) is run by electricity. Considering it is Maine, the heater runs almost constantly from October-March/April. Usually my April power bill is lower than previous few months as we aren’t running the furnace constantly. So imagine my surprise when it was $50 higher than I expected. That was when I started doing some research.
A few years ago Maine started allowing competing supplier for electricity. At that point in time, there was only one other option than the standard offer and it was much cheaper than the standard offer. I never thought to check again. After lamenting the massive electricity bill on Facebook, one of my friends mentioned that she had had a similar issue and the problem was that this particular company was now more than double the standard offer. I found a website that lists all the current electricity supplier prices. Sure enough, out of all the supplier options we now have, the standard offer was now have.
I made a phone call to the supplier I was using and was able to switch back to the standard offer with very little trouble. They did try to convince me to stay but they didn’t try overly hard. I did have one more high bill due to where in my billing cycle I called (this time $80 more than normal. Yikes!) but the following month it was definitely more what I would expect for the time of year. The one piece of advice I was given was to shop around again in the fall. The prices tend to go up in the fall/winter.
Save on your power bill with one simple phone call Click To TweetIf you live in a state with multiple electricity supplier, be sure to check every few months, at least once a year, to be sure you are getting the best deal you can. It is truly amazing how quickly a few cents per kilowatt hour can add up.
nicki schroeder says
Making phone calls works for things like cell phones too! Recently I called our cell provider to see if we could get a lower rate since the competition had commercials for awesome deals. They were more than happy to lower the bill and keep a long time customer. Sometimes all you have to do is ask!
nicki schroeder recently posted…The Queen of Cranky Pants
Julie says
It’s true! I’ve done that with our internet and TV service. This time, I had just plain forgotten to check to make sure I had the cheapest option. Can we blame mommy brain? lol
Emily says
I wish we had options for electricity! We only have one provider and they are constantly jacking up the rates. We are just stuck 🙁 I have had to get creative with trying to save on electric costs. We recently put up a clothesline and I signed up for the leveled billing program. They average our usage for the year and that’s what we pay each month…at the end of the year we either pay if we used more or get a credit if we used less. It has made budgeting a whole lot easier and saves us during the hard/expensive winter months.
Julie says
I actually think my electricity was cheaper back before they started doing this open market type thing.