As an energy supplier, we often hear from our customers about higher electricity bills during the colder months. While it might seem counterintuitive at first—especially if you’re not running an air conditioner—there are several reasons why energy costs can rise as the temperatures drop. Let’s explore why this happens and share some practical tips to help you reduce your energy usage and lower your costs.

Why Electricity Usage Increases in Winter

1. Heating Your Home

For most households, heating accounts for the largest portion of energy usage during winter. While many homes use gas or other fuels for heating, electric heaters, heat pumps, or space heaters can significantly increase electricity consumption. Even if you don’t use electric heating, auxiliary systems like blowers and pumps that circulate heat often run on electricity.

2. Shorter Days and Longer Nights

With fewer daylight hours, lights are on longer in the evening and early morning. This extended use of lighting, especially if you’re still using incandescent or halogen bulbs, can contribute to higher electricity bills.

3. Increased Use of Appliances

Colder weather often means more time spent indoors, leading to increased use of electronics, kitchen appliances, and entertainment systems. Families tend to cook more warm meals, watch movies, or run more loads of laundry—all of which consume electricity.

4. Standby Power Usage

During colder months, people often leave electronics plugged in or on standby for convenience. Devices like electric blankets or heated mattress pads also add to the overall consumption.

Tips to Reduce Your Electricity Costs

While winter energy bills may naturally increase, there are many ways to minimize your electricity usage without compromising comfort.

1. Optimize Heating Efficiency

2. Upgrade to Energy-Efficient Lighting

Switch to LED bulbs, which use up to 75% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and last much longer.

3. Unplug Unused Devices

Even when not in use, many electronics draw power. Use power strips to easily switch off multiple devices or invest in smart plugs to automate usage.

4. Use Appliances Wisely

5. Consider Home Energy Improvements

If you own your home, consider energy-efficient upgrades like double-pane windows, improved insulation, or an energy-efficient HVAC system. These investments can reduce your long-term energy usage.

6. Leverage Natural Heat

Open curtains on south-facing windows during the day to let in sunlight and naturally warm your home. Close them at night to reduce heat loss.

How We Can Help

At Low Cost Power, we’re committed to helping you manage your energy usage year-round. Many of our plans include tools to track your energy consumption, budget billing options to help you avoid seasonal spikes, and energy-efficiency tips to keep your costs low.
If you’re looking for more ways to reduce your winter energy bills, our customer service team is here to help. Together, we can make this winter more comfortable and affordable for your household.

For many people, the winter months aren’t that welcome, and they can even be downright spooky for good reason. The cold weather can be more than uncomfortable. Winter storms can be dangerous and cause significant property damage. Rising energy costs can also be a frightful prospect for your monthly budget.

Getting through the winter months is less scary when you know your home is in good condition, there’s community support you can turn to and you’ve got a plan for conserving energy.

Make Sure Your Home is Ready to Weather the Winter

Preparing a home for winter is critical anywhere the temperature could drop below freezing, which is most of the U.S. When temperatures dip below 32 degrees Fahrenheit that’s when damage can occur. Research from the Texas A&M University determined that if temperatures outside reach 20 degrees Fahrenheit that’s when ice can form in pipes and cause them to burst. 

Make sure you avoid those issues by taking the steps below to get your home ready to weather the winter.

If you have a fireplace, you’ll want to give it some attention as well. Make sure that everything is clean and in working order so it’s a reliable heating source. 

Tap Into Community Support

Getting your home ready for the winter weather is important, but it comes at a cost. While weatherization often doesn’t cost much and will increase energy efficiency, it’s still an upfront investment. Luckily, there are federal, state and community support programs that can help offset the cost. Just keep in mind you may need to meet income and household requirements to qualify for some programs.  

State Resources

There are federal programs, like the Weatherization Assistance Program and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), that are administered through state governments as well as programs that are specific to each state. Checking with your state energy and housing agencies is a good way to find out about available programs.

Local Resources

You can also find local resources that are closer to home. Often the local utility will offer energy saving programs throughout the year that are aimed at helping homeowners make efficiency improvements. 

Many cities also offer assistance to residents that can help make the winter less frightful and more delightful. For example, Chicago administers the Emergency Heating Repair Program (EHRP) to help residents pay for heating system repairs and replacing equipment. 

The local housing authority may also be able to provide assistance for renters. If they don’t offer direct assistance with energy costs in the winter, they may be able to provide other forms of relief that make it easier to pay your utility bill. 

Your energy supplier can also be a valuable resource. If they’re like Major Energy, they will provide you with advice on how to conserve energy and offer special rebates that can be used to get your home ready for winter. Major Energy has also worked with local communities on special projects like donating LED light bulbs to Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, a community nonprofit organization that helps people make home improvements. 

Create a Plan for Conserving Energy During the Winter

If you’re thinking about how you can conserve energy at home this winter you’re off to a strong start. There are a number of other things you can do to save energy now and as the seasons change. 

If you haven’t yet secured a fixed rate energy plan, now is the time to do so. In the northeast, a cold winter can impact energy prices. A fixed rate plan gives you more security knowing that you have locked in a rate that won’t change. 

If you live in a LOA service area, you can easily find available energy plans online in minutes. All you need is a zip code to secure energy rates the entire winter season.

Right now you may be thinking about the start of the new year and some of the things you want to achieve in the coming months. It’s a time when many people evaluate where they are and where they want to be in many aspects of life from professional progression to finding a significant other.

Something that most people don’t think to put on their New Year resolutions list is improving energy use, even though it affects life on a daily basis in the short-term and long-term. We’re here to encourage everyone to set an energy goal this year that will reduce costs, conserve power and eliminate energy waste.
Here’s how!

Why Should You Set Goals?

Some people question the need for going through the goal setting process rather than just jumping right into and working on something. You could hit the ground running, but what direction are you going to run in? And is that the best way to get where you want to be?

Goal setting is essentially a plan to accomplish something, and there’s a lot of research that proves goal setting works. Setting a goal:

These are only a short list of the big benefits of goal setting. Just identifying a goal and writing it down on paper increases the chance that you’ll reach the goal. That alone is reason enough to practice goal setting.

The Power of Goal Setting as an Energy Consumer

It’s important to set energy goals, because our energy use impacts many areas of our life on a daily basis. Our monthly budget can increase or decrease depending on how much energy is used. The comfort of your home depends on how energy is used. The health of the environment is also affected by how each one of us uses energy resources.

All of these factors can be inspiration for setting an energy goal that makes a positive difference all around. When you set energy goals you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain!

Tips for Setting Energy Goals

Setting goals is great, but reaching goals takes a lot more work. The more strategic you are about it, the easier it will be to reach your goals. The tips below will help you set and achieve energy goals that make a noticeable difference.

Analyze Your Energy Use

The first thing you’ll need to do with any goal is evaluate where you’re currently at to get a good idea of how far you have to go. With that in mind, you’ll want to review your monthly and annual energy use by reviewing past utility bills. You can also invest in energy monitoring tools that give you exact measurements of real-time energy use.

Understanding your energy use will help you figure out where improvements can be made. It also gives you a benchmark for starting out so you can measure the progress you make.

Choose One Measurable Energy Goal to Work on at a Time

Where a lot of people go wrong with goal setting is trying to do too much at once. Wanting to accomplish 5+ things is great, but every goal you add reduces the likelihood of hitting any of them.

The more effective strategy is to choose just one primary goal to focus on at a time. That way you can focus your attention and decrease the risk of getting overwhelmed or discouraged. Once you reach that energy goal, then you can set another energy goal that can be your sole focus. The goals can even be related and build on one another.

The other big goal setting misstep people make is setting broad goals that aren’t measurable. When a goal is specific and progress can be measured it helps you gauge how much progress is being made. It also establishes when the goal is met. For example, a common goal is to lose weight. But simply making a goal of losing weight doesn’t tell you when a goal will be achieved. It would be better to set the goal of losing 10 pounds within three months. That provides two measurements that are easy to track and gives you a clear endpoint.

Identify Milestones for the Goal

Even if you’re focused on just one goal, it will take multiple steps to get there. Those are your milestones. A milestone is like a mini-goal that has to happen in order to reach the end goal.

Identifying the milestones comes with a few benefits:

Try to come up with at least three milestones per goal that break things down into more manageable chunks and help you hit the ground running

Monitor the Progress

Once you set a goal and identify the milestones the work isn’t over. Now you need to take steps to reach the first milestone and monitor your progress. This will keep you on track and help you make adjustments if you run into a challenge.

Reward Yourself For Meeting Your Energy Goal

The final step in the process is rewarding yourself for a job well done once you reach the goal. This is actually very important for goal setting. Celebrating the accomplishment with something special reinforces goal setting and doing the work to reach your goals so you’re motivated to keep reaching new ones. Plus, the reward part is the fun part!

Is your goal to find a better energy plan for your home or business? Then check out LOA’s rates in your area! We work hard to create plans that meet the needs of energy consumers in the northeast.