If you went outside today, you probably turned up the fan as soon as you got back home to steal some reprieve from the blistering heat. And maybe you also went to the refrigerator to get a cold glass of water before taking advantage of the sunshine to do some laundry. All the while perhaps not realising the effect all of those activities have on your electricity bill.
The months of April to October are considered the hottest of the year and BEL has observed that during this period, residents see a "shift" in their electricity bills. Basically, all those fans left on all day and AC's on full blast are driving up your kilowatt usage, resulting in a higher bill. And oftentimes, BEL is blamed for the spike. So this year, they're jumping ahead of the problem by offering tips to keep your bill relatively low.
The supervisor of customer relations, Melissa Foreman, told us more today via Zoom.
Melissa Foreman, Supervisor, Customer Relations, BEL
"So we are taking steps to encourage customers to do their best in conserving energy and the way they can do this are simple practices that we can do everyday at our home and at our offices where for example, especially during these times of the months, we take less visits to the refrigerator, we tend to want to go and make sure we pull something cool out of the refridge or maybe utilising and opening up our windows instead of turning our fans to the max or pushing up the AC to try to cool us down."
"A lot of us don't realise that we are using, especially in these hotter months, a fan that is turned on almost 24 hours, if we're at home, we're using it because we're working from home and if we're not at home, we're using it during the night so those that work specifically from home literally have it where they have it turned on during that times and then when they go to bed in the bedroom, they have that turned on as well."
"During this period as well, I know we have kids that are home from school so they may not recognise the fact that there's that shift, and practices like that, having them constantly visiting the refrigerator to get that refreshing drink or not making up their mind what they want out of the refrigerator and standing in front of that refrigerator and deciding what it is that I want from out of that so those are the types of tips that we try to offer customers."
"Something as simple as the amount of loads that they wash for the week. We have to remind customers it's not the size of the load that makes the difference but the number of loads so if it is you can wait until you can maximise a full load of washing, then take advantage of that instead of doing so many multiple smaller loads."
"It makes a difference that even if we're not using a specific appliance or device, we unplug those. So for example the charger, we tend to have a practice to keep our phone chargers in. Unplug those, unplug our fans and our TVs if we're not using them or if we're not at home because the little amounts add up and it makes a difference at the end when we see our bill."
And if you're still skeptical, Foreman explained how you can monitor your kilowatt usage by reading your own meter and using BEL's bill calculator.
Melissa Foreman, Supervisor, Customer Relations, BEL
"But of course it is important as well for our customers to be able to manage their consumption at home and to this is the better understand their meters and meter readings and be able to identify a specific period for the week or for a day, capture a start reading and capture an end reading an the difference between that is what they use for the day. That information then they can see for themselves what it is they are using and can calculate their daily use for that period using our bill calculator and customers are able to do this through our BEL 24/7 mobile app that is available on our Apple store or Google Play or even on our website. Use the bill calculator and include this consumption that they're using and identify what they're actually utilising and what that dollar value will come up to."
BEL is also encouraging you to reach out to them with any question or concern you may have. Their app is available 24/7 but you can also send them an email or give them a call.
