Why It’s Smart to Buy Now: Are your utility bills too high?
January 3, 2023
Why It’s Smart to Buy Now:
Reason #1 - Are your utility bills too high?
If you’re like most homeowners, you love the warm comfy feeling of your heater during those arctic blasts, but you sure feel the sticker shock when that gas bill hits your mailbox … and your budget. Same with that summer electric bill when it starts getting Oklahoma hot and you turn on the a/c.
Why the increase?
Without getting into global economics, the supply and demand of natural gas is a key factor. Pipelines, lawsuits, access issues, and the war between Russia and Ukraine all have to do with utility prices ticking upward.
According to NPR, Time, and other sources, rising utility bills are a direct result of the surge in the price of natural gas, which generates about 40 percent of the United States’ electricity. And you can expect this surge to last a while. Pricing for natural gas heating has definitely bumped up a notch this year, and since natural gas is a common source of heating for Oklahoma homeowners, we’re all feeling the pinch.
Some homeowners in Oklahoma will see an even greater increase in utility bills if their homes aren’t highly energy efficient. Don’t let an inefficient home cause you to have high energy bills.
Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods builds the most energy-efficient homes. Among other energy-saving innovations, Ideal is the only Oklahoma builder partnered with the Environments for Living program to guarantee heating and cooling usage on most Ideal homes we build. We’ll tell you upfront how much your average heating and cooling usage should be. If it’s more, we’ll reimburse you for up to three years.
So, if you made the smart move of purchasing an Ideal home, you made a wise choice and are ahead of the game. Here are some additional tips for keeping your home highly efficient.
- Keep your thermostat just a little lower in winter and higher in summer. We’re not talking 10 degrees … just a couple of degrees will help. If you’re chilly in the winter, grab a sweater or throw instead of cranking up the thermostat!
- Don’t set your thermostat to an energy savings mode. This causes your home to either heat up too significantly in the summer or cool too significantly in the winter for your HVAC to keep up with demand.
- Switch the direction of ceiling fan blades for the appropriate season (counter-clockwise during summer, clockwise during winter), and turn off the fans when no one is in the room.
These are just a few simple tips that will help lower electric and natural gas bills in your home. If you are living in a home that isn’t highly efficient, we can help you find one to lower your monthly energy costs.
