Andrea:
Welcome to Live Wire, a podcast powered by Kosciusko REMC. We are a member owned and locally operated cooperative that supplies electricity to portions of Kosciusko, Fulton, Wabash, and Whitley Counties here in Northern Indiana. Live Wire is a program where we come together to discuss co-op matters, energy, community topics, and to communicate with KREMC members. I'm your host, Andrea Melton.
Thank you so much for tuning in today. We're excited to be back with another episode of Live Wire, the podcast of Kosciusko REMC. And one of the things I want to talk about today on the podcast is high electric bills. And with me today, I'm very lucky to have our Supervisor of Member Services, Nichole Fifer in the studio for this episode of the podcast. Hi, Nichole.

Nichole:
Hi, Andrea.

Andrea:
Thanks so much for coming in.

Nichole:
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

Andrea:
I am also excited to address an issue that comes up a lot around here I imagine, and to give folks, to give our listeners, our members some really great information about high electric bills. And you are the person who handles the majority of those inquiries and questions that come in when people have an issue with maybe an unusually high electric bill. Is that correct?

Nichole:
That is correct.

Andrea:
All right. Well, let's get into it. Can you give us an overview, Nichole, of what exactly constitutes a high electric bill? Are there specific factors that contribute to this or would make a bill unusually high?

Nichole:
Well, Andrea, there are quite a bit of factors that can make an electric bill extremely high. It does also depend on the house and what appliances are running. One of the ways that we figure out is first of all, there usually is different seasons that are causing that usage to go up high. In the wintertime you have heating that is going to make your bill go high, especially if it is an electric furnace or if you have geo. Sometimes those geo units have backup heat that will generate if your heat is not keeping up to the temperature that you have set in your home.
Another thing is is that you always want to change out your filters in your units before the seasons, whether it is your air conditioner or it is your furnace. Having that actually serviced prior to the season coming is going to possibly help that bill from being so high and it also will catch any issues that might happen before it actually happens.

Andrea:
Absolutely. So you want to be preventative, get in there ahead of the game knowing that you're going to be expecting a higher bill and try to do something to circumvent that.

Nichole:
Yes.

Andrea:
So if somebody calls in, what kind of constitutes a high bill? And we probably don't have people coming in, "My bill is $20 higher than it was." So what kind of leaps are we seeing? What might cause somebody to get an unusually high bill?

Nichole:
So if you get a bill that could run about 80 to a hundred dollars more than what you usually use each month, that is something that I would definitely recommend you contacting us. That way we can take a look at the situation. Again, in the wintertime, we like to look. We have the availability to see if it is a heating element that is being used that is causing so much heat. Space heaters are something that can make your bill go extremely high. They're approximately $5 a day if they're left on 24 hours a day, and that is per heating unit. The other thing is we can also check this in the summertime to see if your air conditioner is one of the usages that's causing your bill to be so high. Since summer is approaching, those swimming pools are getting serviced, people are turning on their heat in their swimming pool to make that warmer so they can swim earlier than before it gets 90 degrees. That is going to make a huge jump, especially if you have an electric pump.

Andrea:
Absolutely. So those are common reasons people might see a sudden increase in bill. Those seasonal changes definitely affect those bills. Nichole, are there any misconceptions or myths about high electric bills that you encounter?

Nichole:
There is actually. We have a lot of members that will call in and say, "My neighbor's bill is so much lower. They have a lot larger home than what we have." And the thing that I like to tell them is you can't compare your bill with somebody else's because it is not an identical home. So one might be more insulated than what the other one is. There may be better windows. Your unit might be more efficient than the other person. You might have more lights or things plugged in than what your neighbor has. So that is something that I always like to tell my members, to never compare themselves to somebody else that they know and just to contact us right away so we can take a look at it and help prevent that from happening in the future.
I do have some people, there is a option where you can go on to our Kosciusko REMC website and you can view your daily usage. So if you think that something might be using so much power, you can watch that and see if you unplug it, and then if your usage goes down, then you know that that's using a lot of power than what you're used to be using.

Andrea:
Wow, what a great tool. I rent my home and actually that landlord maintains that account in their name, so I'm actually not privy to some of the specifics there. So that's really valuable. That's great. Are there any specific appliances or behaviors you're finding that contribute the most to high electric bills?

Nichole:
So as far as appliances, there's no specific appliance itself that's contributing, but what I will tell you is as your appliances get older, they will start to use more power to keep the temperature in the refrigerator or the deep freezer up to what it should be. So those are some things that you want to make sure that as your refrigerator is getting older, that it's not continuing to run, that it is shutting off for that break. You also want to make sure you have nothing blocking the vents in the refrigerator. So if you have a fridge or a deep freezer that is extremely full, make sure that it's able to vent itself in and out to eliminate it from either over freezing or not working efficiently like it should.
Another thing that I want to make sure that people know is that having efficient appliances is something that is going to be helpful in your electric bill, but if you do see that there's an issue with an appliance, whether it's a water heater or a refrigerator or something that is electric in your house, we do have the capability that if we can't just narrow it down by speaking on that first conversation, we can have you actually unplug something for a couple hours, maybe two to three hours, log the time that you unplugged it and the time that you plug it back in, and we can look at the 15-minute intervals to see if there was a huge difference. So that can kind of help you see, okay, this could be the culprit of why my bill's going so high.

Andrea:
Oh, goodness. How great is that?

Nichole:
Absolutely.

Andrea:
That's so helpful. So somebody can just call in if they want to request that we do something like that for them to try to...

Nichole:
Yes, absolutely. We also have on the Kosciusko REMC website basically a tool called the Home Energy Advisor, and that is something that you can log in, it will ask specific questions about your home, such as the installation, what you have that's electric within the home, whether you have a swimming pool, how large is the square footage, and by the time that you're done, it can give you details on how to lower your bill and what could be using so much power based off of the information that you have. So I always suggest to my members to go on there and see what the suggestions are. It may be expensive and that may not be an option for you, but it may be give you some cheaper options for you to basically make your house more efficient.

Andrea:
Wonderful. That online energy advisor tool is so, so valuable.

Nichole:
Absolutely.

Andrea:
Nichole, can you share any success stories or examples of how KREMC has helped a specific member reduce their electric bill?

Nichole:
So I don't have one specific story, but I can tell you there has been a lot of successful information that has been given to our members to help them. In the winter times, we have some of those homes that don't quite have the insulation barriers that they need to keep that heat from escalating out or the cold air from coming in. So I do always suggest to put plastic on the windows - that's super cheap, put pool noodles around the pipes to help keep them from freezing up. There is some cheap ways to fix those, and I have noticed a difference in those bills where they've been able to lower them.
The other day, actually, I spoke with a member and her husband and they were telling me that nothing had changed. They had a furnace, but they also had the electric baseboard heaters. And come to find out about a month prior to them contacting me, they were getting chilly in one of their rooms and had discovered that they had left the baseboard heater in that room on with 80 degrees, and that had made their bill jump at least a hundred dollars.

Andrea:
Oh, wow.

Nichole:
So it was a good success. We found the culprit. And once they shut that off, their bill did drop and it was significant. And now they know to always double check or set a reminder if they do turn that on. So we try our hardest to figure out how we can lower that bill for you because nobody wants to open that bill going, this is not in my budget, and not knowing what caused it.

Andrea:
Absolutely. I'm so glad we do that. I know your team is amazing at helping our customers in all of those ways. Finally, any final advice you'd give to members who are struggling to afford their electric bills?

Nichole:
Electric bills are hard. You need electricity, and unfortunately you're never prepared for when that bill comes if you have no idea how much it's going to cost. So what I really suggest is before the seasons, to one, get your furnaces serviced or your air conditionings. Check the filters on a regular basis every couple months to make sure that they're not clogged and your furnace or your air conditioners having to overheat or overwork itself. Do what you can to prepare your home for the winter, and also to prepare your home for the summer before you get to that season because once that season comes and that bill is already high, nobody has the extra money to go ahead and put those inexpensive costs into the home to fix it. So if you can prevent it from happening, I always suggest trying to start the season before.

Andrea:
Awesome. Great advice. Thank you so much.

Nichole:
Thank you. I appreciate it.

Andrea:
Nichole Fifer, Supervisor of Member Services, thank you for coming in to talk with us on Live Wire about high electric bills today.

Nichole:
Thank you for having me, Andrea, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your bill.

Andrea:
Every year, Kosciusko REMC awards scholarships to 10 students involved in 4-H. A committee chooses the scholarship recipients to receive $350 to be used towards expenses for any 4-H project. And again, we give out 10 of these scholarships. The deadline to apply for the 4-H scholarship for this year is coming up on April 1st. So if you know a 4-Her who might be interested and in need of this scholarship, have them apply. You can visit our website, kremc.com. Click on the tab that says community and go down to youth programs. Again, that deadline is coming up April 1st, so go check it out.
KREMC also offers the John H. Anglin Scholarship every year. This is a scholarship that assists members or their dependents financially in pursuing higher education. Each year we award 10 applicants a John H. Anglin Scholarship of $1,000. The scholarship goes toward tuition for the upcoming school year at the higher learning institution of the applicant's choice. To apply for the John H. Anglin Scholarship, you would also visit the KREMC website, go to community, and then youth programs. This deadline is also coming up on April 1st, so get those applications in as soon as possible.
And finally, there are also opportunities available to local youth through the Indiana Electric Cooperatives, and the annual Cooperative Calendar of Student Art Contest has a deadline coming up on March 29th. The Cooperatives' Calendar Art Contest is open to all kindergarten through 12th grade students who want to create an illustration for the calendar. A first place artist winner is selected for each grade and the winners get a $200 prize. In addition, the artwork for each grade division winner will illustrate the cover in all 12 months of the calendar. Again, that deadline is coming up March 29th, and you can find the information for that contest on our website as well. You've been listening to Live Wire, the official podcast of Kosciusko REMC. To learn more about KREMC, visit our website, kremc.com, and follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.