Houston – Saving on electricity means turning off devices and lights and bumping up your thermostat to a temperature some of you may think is uncomfortable. Many of you don’t do it because you don’t know how much you can save. There is an easy way to track your usage and see how small changes to your routine can save you money on your electric bill.
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You can create an account on Smart Meter Texas for free.
- You can also sign up to receive notifications by email each day to show you how much electricity you used the day before.
- You can ask the site to show you your usage every 15 minutes, daily or monthly.
- Tracking your usage daily makes it easier to see why you may have used more or less power.
We checked one of our photojournalists’ accounts. His family is pretty conservative, usually using less than 40 kilowatts each day.
RELATED: How to check how much electricity you are using
He can tell by looking back at his calendar in the last week of May that the days when his 4 children were released early from school. Their electricity usage spiked to 50 and 60 kilowatts a day with more people home turning down the thermostat.
This is the same data your electric provider uses to bill you every month. If your electric provider already sends you your daily kilowatt usage, this is where they’re getting it.
Smart Meter Texas is jointly owned by CenterPoint Energy and the three other Transmission and Distribution utilities in Texas.
Tracking electric charges during long power outages
You can also check your energy usage on Smart Meter Texas when your power goes out for an extended period of time.
On July 8th, Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to more than 2 million customers.
Usage dropped to 0 that morning. It didn’t return until July 13th.
RELATED: Some customers show power usage during power outages
Amy Davis kept her thermostat steady at 73 degrees versus bumping it up to 78 when everyone was gone during the day to see exactly how many kilowatts were used. On some days, it looks like she uses more electricity by moving the temperature up and down.
Do you have a question for Investigator Amy Davis? Email AskAmy@kprc.com.