How to save on your utility costs

Unify Piermont (unifypiermont@live.com)

Potential savings on your utility costs

All of us are struggling in these difficult financial times and looking at our costs and expenses. One area for possible savings is in our utility costs.

Are your electric and natural gas costs up, flat or down from the same time last year? Any change is dependent on a number of factors including your usage, your mix of electricity and natural gas and your energy supplier.

In February 2009, O & R’s electric rate was 13% lower than the year before, the natural gas rate was 3% higher. Have you remained with O & R? Or switched to an alternate supplier? Current natural gas rates range from $1 to $1.42 per CCF (there are even lower rates which carry a monthly service fee of about $8) and similar variability exists in electric rates. A fixed rate contract for one year is even available at $.89 per CCF.

O & R encourages the use of alternate energy suppliers and offers several options for choosing them on their website www.oru.com. These options include Power Switch (applicable if you are still with O & R) which offers 7% off your bill for two months for switching to an alternate energy supplier. O & R will choose the supplier for you or you can choose your own from the list of suppliers on their website.

A second option is to use the O & R e-bids facility which allows alternate suppliers to bid for your business. You will receive an e-mail telling you that alternate suppliers have submitted bids and you choose the one you want or do nothing.

A third option is to use O & R’s list of alternate suppliers and shop around picking the supplier with the plan that meets your needs. O & R provides a Price to Compare list on their website to use in making the comparisons. There are even “Green” suppliers for electricity using wind, hydro and biomass if you are so inclined. These tend to be more expensive, however.

A different website, www.energyguide.com, can also be very useful. After you input your zip code, it will provide a list of Residential Electricity Offers and a list of Residential Gas Offers that can be reviewed with the rates and terms of each supplier. It also offers a calculator in which you can compare your actual bills, rather than using the average in our area.

Some suppliers offer fixed rates with terms of 3, 6, 12 or 24 months for gas and a year for electricity. It can pay to switch, the Piermont Landing HOA recently changed its natural gas supplier saving $2,000 in January and February.

Any savings are, of course, dependent on what happens to prices in the market which is why you need to carefully consider all of the alternatives before making a change.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.

Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to create a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations. And one which communicates with its residents, providing useful information on a timely basis.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes, Village debt and the lack of any meaningful communication from our Village Board; than e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com.