By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - The Tennessee Valley Authority is seeing the highest power demand so far this year, and expecting the drain to increase along with temperatures this week.
With more of us heading indoors for air conditioning, more demand is placed on utilities and that can cause power bills to rise.
That's why TVA officials urge us to be smart about energy consumption. There are many simple steps we can take to keep those power bills down. Turning the lights off is the easiest.
TVA spokesperson Mike Bradley shared a few more tips. "Some simple things are making sure you've got good insulation, windows, awnings, and sealing the cracks around windows. That makes your thermostat work that much better, whether it's programmable or not."
Keeping your freezer full, using energy efficient appliances, even turning on an oven light instead of opening the door to check on food can save you money.
According to TVA, if you leave lights on regularly you can save between $18 and $22 a year, just by flipping the switch.
These steps are especially important when the temperatures rise outside. "This is the most demand we've had for the year," said Bradley. "The demand for megawatts has reached about 28,000 over the weekend. We expect that to get up to about 30,000 megawatts by the end of the week."
TVA officials aren't concerned until demand for power gets close to 33,000 megawatts. "When the system demand is too much, we sometimes have to get power from sources outside of the TVA system and that can be costly," Bradley explained.
He says an at-home energy audit can help. For about $150, an auditor will come to your home, tell you where you're losing money and offer a list of ways you can save. If you follow their advice, making at least some of the changes, you'll be reimbursed.
If you don't have the time or money to have an inspector come to you, you can get started online by answering a few questions about your home and power usage.
Answering questions about things like the type and number of appliances you have, square footage of your home, and your power usage habits will allow the computer program to create a chart. It shows the portion of your power bill spent on heating, lights, and doing laundry, for example.
A virtual home is also generated, outlining the largest money suckers in your home. Then you can get tips on making slight changes to save you big bucks.
When you take an online survey and enter your address, you'll get an energy conservation kit mailed to your home for free. It contains compact fluorescent bulbs, adaptors for your faucet to cut down on water usage, and light switch and outlet sealers to cut down on drafts.
The more utility companies have to spend to keep up with demand, the higher bills we could all see.
TVA's all time record demand hit in August 2007 when temperatures averaged 102 degrees. At that time 33,482 megawatts of power was used.
TVA's capacity is about 34,000 megawatts, but officials say they've taken measures to prevent blackouts if the system reaches capacity.
The virtual home outlines the largest money suckers in your residence.
