Houston – Saving electricity means turning off appliances and lights and turning up the thermostat to a temperature that some of you find uncomfortable. Many of you don’t do this because you don’t know how much you can save. There’s an easy way to track your usage and see how small changes to your routine can save you money on your electricity bill.
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You can create an account with Smart Meter Texas for free.
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You can also sign up to receive daily email alerts showing you how much electricity you used the previous day.
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You can ask the site to show you your usage every 15 minutes, daily or monthly.
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By monitoring your consumption daily, you can more easily see why you may have used more or less electricity.
We checked the account of one of our photojournalists. His family is quite frugal and usually uses less than 40 kilowatts per day.
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A glance at his calendar shows him that his four children got home from school early during the last week of May. Their electricity use increased to 50 to 60 kilowatts per day because more people turned down the thermostat at home.
This is the same data your electricity provider uses to bill you each month. If your electricity provider already sends you your daily kilowatt usage, they will get that data from here.
Smart Meter Texas is jointly owned by CenterPoint Energy and the three other transmission and distribution companies in Texas.
Tracking electrical charges during extended power outages
You can also check your energy usage with Smart Meter Texas if your power is out for an extended period of time.
On July 8, Hurricane Beryl cut off power to more than 2 million homes.
That morning, consumption dropped to 0. It did not return until July 13.
RELATED: Some customers show power consumption during power outages
Amy Davis set her thermostat consistently at 73 degrees rather than 75 degrees when everyone was gone during the day to see exactly how many kilowatts were being used. Some days, it looks like she’s using more electricity as she turns the temperature up and down.
Do you have a question for Investigator Amy Davis? Email [email protected].
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