subject: Tracking And Monitoring Texas Electricity: Get The Most Savings [print this page] As the weather warms up in the state, particular during summer time when the mercury indicators show elevated temperature levels, people try to compensate by turning the dials of their air conditioning up. Not only will their use of energy skyrocket to astronomical levels, their Texas electricity bills would skyrocket along as well.
In an energy deregulated market, Texas consumers have the power to select their Texas electricity options and would use this advantage to get the best plans and most savings from their retail electric providers. However, unless really cheap electricity is available in abundance, people need to monitor their electricity consumption and put in under check for this is the only way they could really get the most savings.
Understanding Your Electrical Consumption
The way people consume Texas electricity would largely depend on their lifestyle, the number of electrical appliances they own, and the frequency they use these appliances. The more people consume energy, logically the higher their electricity bills would be. However, this would further be affected the varying electricity rates offered by the various Texas electric companies.
Each appliance and electrical device consumes different levels of electricity and this would further vary from model to model. Aside from that, the amount of energy consumed by each electrical appliance would vary greatly depending on how high or how low you crank the settings. Good examples would be an electric oven where more energy is consumed during higher temperature settings. The same is true for washing machines. Washing in hot water would activate its heaters and consume more electricity.
Some appliances run in cycles, using full energy in one cycle then lowers considerably during the next. This is typical of refrigerators and air conditioners where energy consumption would depend on how often their compressors turn on and off. However, the lower the temperature settings are, the harder the compressor would run and consumer more electricity.
Although not appliances would run on a 24 hour basis, many devices are left in standby mode. These devices will consume very minimal electricity during this mode but the amount of standby power consumed would still be considerable if accumulated.
However, knowing how these devices and appliances run may not be enough to help you get the most savings. You need to have an effective method or instrument to help you monitor your consumption so you can effectively plan how you use Texas electricity wisely and this is where smart meters would come into play.
Using Smart Meters to Track and Monitor Texas Electricity
In a smart meter system, or what other Texas electric company would call as Advanced Metering System, incorporates communication and information management technologies into the electrical grid to provide real-time information to both consumers and the retail electric providers. Using these smart meters, consumers can better manage their electricity usage resulting in more efficient and optimum use of energy.
Smart meters give consumers a full understanding of how much energy they are using at any given moment and how much they have already consumed for a given month or period. These systems can come with an in-home display monitor that tells consumers how much Texas electricity has already been consumed and how much this translates to dollars. With this greater control over their electricity usage, consumers can realize greater cost savings as well as help reduce harmful emissions that can harm the environment.
