DALLAS — On these hot summer days in Texas, having power to stay cool is often top of mind. It's why ERCOT is asking residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve power between 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday to prevent system-wide outages.
David Kinchen, the chief operating officer of Energy Ogre, provides some tips on how to save energy. Energy Ogre is an electric management company that works with customers statewide.
Kinchen simplifies power conservation into three buckets:
1. High impact, low effort: This tier will make a big difference, but won't take much effort for residents to do. Major appliances like the dishwasher, an electric dryer or electric stove use a lot of wattage. Run them later in the evening. During the conservation time, don't open and close your refrigerator or freezer as often.
2. High impact, high effort: This is often the hardest for people to do because it involves upping the numbers on your air conditioning. The general guideline is for residents to turn the AC up to 78 degrees. But Kinchen realistically recommends for people to turn the dial up two to three degrees during peak hours. He said that little bit of change will make a big difference.
3. Low impact, low effort: These are simple things that may not see an immediate impact on the energy bill, but will save energy if everyone contributes. Some solutions include turning off the lights when you leave the room, unplug cell phone chargers, unplug coffee pots, or turn off power strips.
"If all of us did one thing, it would absolutely add up," said Kinchen.
Here are more tips that Energy Ogre recommends: