'Level Billing' Aims to Provide Relief from High Electric Bills
By: Adam Rodriguez, KARK 4 News
Updated: August 1, 2012
With recent record-setting temperatures, electric bills are rising as quickly as the mercury in your thermometers, causing people to shell out more money than ever to keep cool.
However there is a way to manage that bill.
Fortunately there's something called level billing, where the utility company takes the amount of your bill from last year and divides it by 12.
That way you're paying roughly the same amount every month instead of getting big bills in the summer and lower bills in the fall.
"One of the biggest things people can do is to set their thermostat to 78 degrees," says Entergy spokesperson David Lewis. "It might feel better at 72, but you can save a whole lot of money at 78."
Lewis says the increased power demand is unlikely to cause rolling blackouts or outages in Central Arkansas because they have made some major investments to meet the demands, but he also says it helps when people conserve.
However there is a way to manage that bill.
Fortunately there's something called level billing, where the utility company takes the amount of your bill from last year and divides it by 12.
That way you're paying roughly the same amount every month instead of getting big bills in the summer and lower bills in the fall.
"One of the biggest things people can do is to set their thermostat to 78 degrees," says Entergy spokesperson David Lewis. "It might feel better at 72, but you can save a whole lot of money at 78."
Lewis says the increased power demand is unlikely to cause rolling blackouts or outages in Central Arkansas because they have made some major investments to meet the demands, but he also says it helps when people conserve.
