Home for the holidays? Here’s how you can save energy

The holidays are a time for celebration and reconnection with family and friends. But having everyone home for the holidays also means utility bills may increase as hard-earned time off combines with home office activity. 

As energy costs are expected to rise this winter, FirstEnergy wants to help customers save energy and money. Whether it’s a home office, video game consoles, or HVAC systems, here are five simple ways customers can reduce their usage while everyone is home for the holidays. 

1. Turn off your video game console when it is not in use. Most game consoles use as much energy in the “idle” mode as in the “active” or “game on” mode. The annual electricity usage for a video game console that is always turned on is nearly 10 times as much as a console that is turned off when not in use.

2. To save battery life on your smart phone, be sure to properly close applications that you are not using. Most smart phones have settings to allow you to choose which “apps” to put in a “sleep mode” if you don’t want to close them.

3. If you are not going to use your personal computer for more than 20 minutes, turn off your monitor. If you are not going to use your computer for more than 2 hours, turn off your monitor and CPU. It takes a lot more energy to have your computer running than the energy it takes to start it.

4. For holiday lighting, consider using LED lights. Not only will LED lights reduce electric use by more than 90 percent compared to traditional incandescent holiday light bulbs, but they will also last more than 25,000 hours.

5. Set the heating thermostat as low as comfort permits. For instance, each degree above 68°F can add 3 percent to the amount of energy needed for heating. If you have a heat pump, make sure that the thermostat is designed to operate the heat pump efficiently when raising the temperature after it has been lowered.

Visit the Edison Electric Institute’s “100 Ways to Save” for more energy-saving tips. 

A complete list of FirstEnergy’s energy efficiency offerings can be found at www.firstenergycorp.com/save_energy. 

For assistance resources available to help with high winter bills, customers may visit www.firstenergycorp.com/billassist. 

CONTACT: Will Singer, 330-384-5657