Submitted by Kathleen B of Boise State University:

When I was a little girl, we lived in a drafty old house in southern Idaho. On cold winter mornings, my two brothers, my sister or I would sneak over to the thermostat and turn the dial up to a level we deemed reasonable. The furnace in the basement would roar loudly and start spewing its glorious heat out of a large wall register. The lucky one among us would quickly cuddle up to the register and, wrapped in a blanket, begin to thaw. Invariably the roar of the furnace would cue in our parents to our misdeed. The ensuing lecture about conserving energy to save money had been heard so many times that it fell on deaf ears. ?Go put on a sweater!? I heard that refrain more times than I can remember. I swore that I wouldn?t be an energy miser when I grew up.

So now, of course, I am the parent with a vested interest in keeping the electric bill down. Through constant lecturing by my parents, I have become the dutiful energy conservator. I always turn off lights when I leave a room. I?ve switched to LED bulbs. My husband changes the furnace filters regularly. Old, leaky windows are covered in visqueen during the winter months. Drapes and blinds are drawn during the summer months. Hot water use is closely monitored. Energy star appliances have been purchased. But? I keep the house at 70 degrees year-round and the fan runs constantly to keep the air circulating and filter out dust and dander.

Spending money on fancy air purifiers or filters and an upgraded HVAC system are not in the budget. Trying to convince my five-year-old and two-year-old to just ?Go put on a sweater!? is not a solution I?m ok with. How can I keep everyone in the house comfortable and breathing easily without spending millions of dollars on electricity and natural gas? This is literally the million dollar question.

TIME OF DAY
(WEEKDAYS ONLY) SUMMER ENERGY
TIME PERIODS
(JUNE-AUGUST) RATES*
1 P.M.?9 P.M. Peak 12.78 cents/ kWh
9 P.M.?1 P.M. Off-Peak 7.32 cents/ kWh
TIME OF DAY
(WEEKDAYS ONLY) NON-SUMMER ENERGY
TIME PERIODS
(SEPTEMBER-MAY) RATES*
7 A.M.?9 P.M. Peak 9.43 cents/ kWh
9 P.M.?7 A.M. Off-Peak 7.32 cents/ kWh

So many ideas I?ve heard of require a lot of planning, time, money and/or cultural shifts to be of any use. I can lower my electricity bill today by switching to a Time of Day plan with our electric company, Idaho Power.

I could save 2.11 cents per kWh during the fall through spring months and 5.46 cents per kWh during the summer months. Although I will still pay for heating and air conditioning during off-peak hours, my account shows that the amount of power used during the hours of 8 am and 5 pm are comparable to the amount used while everyone is asleep. My power bill will also be reduced when I do my household chores. My husband and I both work during the week (he at his job and I attend college full-time). When we get home around 6:00 pm we make dinner, feed the kids and then put them to bed around 8:30 pm. We usually don?t get to do chores such as laundry and dishes until after 9:00 pm anyway.

Switching to this sort of program is a win-win for consumers and providers. The power company gets to provide a more stable stream of electricity to those who need it during peak hours and I don?t have to pay peak rates during off-peak hours. I plan on signing up for this program as soon as possible. I am disappointed that I haven?t taken advantage of it sooner. It was this essay and the research I did to write it that led me to learn more about the Time of day Program. It is simple, cost-effective and available to most consumers. It?s not a very creative answer, but it is the most practical for our family. In my world, practical trumps creative every time.

Beware of little expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship. — Ben Franklin (1706-1790)