On the heels of a fairly normal December, Tideland territory entered the New Year experiencing daily temperature lows in the 20s. The normal daily low for January is 34° The impacts of those temperature dips were immediately reflected in daily kilowatt hour consumption with even lower temperatures in the forecast for the second week of January.

Since September 2014, Tideland members have had access to “high energy use alerts.” It’s an amazing service option designed to prevent high bills yet we find many of you are still not utilizing it.

The easiest way to activate the service is to log on to the “Member Portal”.

Once you’ve logged in, click on “My Account” and select “Manage Alerts.” Next click “Balance and Usage Notifications” and complete the fields for a “High Energy Usage Alert – Daily.”

Fill in the dollar amount that will trigger a high-energy-usage alert. Keep in mind this is a DAILY usage alert. So if your electric bills average $180 a month, you may want to set your daily usage alert for $6.00 ($180 divided by 30 days = $6.00).

You may want to adjust the amount seasonally depending on your summer and winter energy consumption patterns. You can receive the alerts via text or email. If you opt to receive alerts via text you will need to Opt In when the initial enrollment notice is sent to your cell phone. Please do not skip that step.

If the process above sounds too complicated, you are welcome to call the co-op and have one of our service representatives complete enrollment for you.

However, I do hope you will become familiar with the member portal and take a deeper dive into your daily energy consumption to learn how it corresponds with outdoor temperatures and household activities.

Every member can access their daily energy consumption. Depending on the age of your meter you can also access either hourly or 15-minute interval readings. That data can be particularly meaningful if you want to determine how much different loads in your home contribute to your overall energy bill. You can even experiment with daily thermostat settings to better understand the correlation between the temperature setting and your energy consumption.

Take care and stay warm efficiently this winter.