Monday, January 4, 2010 10:19 am

Middle Tennessee Electric officials want to remind its members that cold weather snaps can push electric bills upwards.

“With much below average temperatures in the forecast, it’s important to remember that we can’t control the weather, but we can curb our home’s energy usage,” MTEMC Communications Coordinator Todd Palmer said. “When temperatures plummet, electric bills typically go up.”

Palmer says that’s because the colder weather makes your heat-and-air units, your homes biggest strain on your electric bill, run a lot harder.

“Since your heat-and-air unit accounts for more than 50 percent of your electric bill, the more it runs, the higher your bill will be,” Palmer said. “Cutting it back even a degree can save you as much as three percent on your home’s electric bills.”

More tips can be found on the cooperative’s Web site at www.mtemc.com.

Middle Tennessee Electric serves power to its approximately 180,000 member customers in Cannon, Rutherford, Williamson and Wilson counties.

10 Quick Ways To Save Today

1. Take a quick inventory of your home, and see what you might be able to turn off or unplug – cell phone chargers, TVs, lights when you leave a room. 

2. Set the thermostat to the lowest comfortable temperature. Moving the thermostat down one degree means as much as a three-percent reduction in your electric bill. 

3. Keep heating system filters clean. 

4. Keep air vents clear of obstructions. 

5. Open blinds/drapes on the sunny side of the house during the day, but close them at night.

6. Compact fluorescent lamps can replace bulbs in most table lamps and will save up to 75 percent in lighting energy, produce more light and last up to 10 times longer.

7. Wash full loads of clothes in the coolest water possible. Rinse clothes in cold water.

8. Keep the temperature between 36 degrees and 40 degrees in the refrigerator and 0 degrees and 5 degrees in the freezer. Use a refrigerator/freezer thermometer to check the settings.

9. Stop the dryer as soon as clothes are dry, or use the moisture sensor control to automatically shut off the dryer. Overdrying wastes energy and sets in wrinkles.

10. Dry loads one right after another. You'll use less energy because the dryer is already heated.