High Energy Bills?

SCE can help. If you live in the southern California Area and are paying your huge chunk of electricity payments to Southern California Edison (www.sce.com) they have some tips to save some green. So their site "Top 10 Energy Guzzlers" http://www.sce.com/CustomerService/HighBillHelper/energyguzzler.htm under their "High Bill Helpers" section has an interactive picture of 10 appliances in your house that can be causing that high energy bill. 1 of the 10 (actually #9) is the central air conditioner. Edison averages about .17 per kilowatt hour and they used a 3 Ton unit for example. They guess that if you have an inefficient model, you can pay $80.46 running it for 4 hours a day. If however, you have a higher SEER you can save money without having to turn the thermostat up to 82. (things to remember) 1. The current government standard in SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratings) is 13. A seer of 13 is saving you 30% over a 10 seer (a unit maybe 5-7 years old). 2. If you pay $100 for your energy bill and upgrade to a 13 SEER, you will be saving 38% and now paying $62 for that same bill (according to residential.carrier.com's calculator). 3. The agreed upon temperature for optimal savings and optimal comfort is 78 degrees and higher when you're away from home. 4. Your thermostat isn't saving you any money if you are using it as a manual model (turning it on and off when you want to). Okay, check out the suggestions, many of them are common sense, some of them are weird (like get flat bottomed pans to avoid using too much electrical stove time - who sells rounded pots? and how do they stand up?....weird). But worth a look anyhow. They also have more tips on how to lower your energy bill under their High Bill Helpers section.