How to keep your costs low as Seattle City Light price hikes begin January

SEATTLE — Seattle City Light customers will start seeing rate hikes in January. It’s part of three separate increases that customers will soon see on their electric bills.

Seattle City Light told KIRO 7 that the hikes are coming from three areas. First, a four percent increase was approved by the Seattle City Council last fall. Secondly, a 4.5 percent increase is also happening because the utility burned through millions of dollars of its emergency fund or rate stabilization account.

Finally, because the year has been poor for hydropower production, hydroelectric dams are not producing enough energy to keep up with demand. The utility said it’s had to make up for that by buying power.

There are some simple steps you can take to reduce the cost of your energy bill. Nathan Champneys, the electrical service manager for Harts Services explained that water heaters are one of the biggest energy suckers in a house.

He recommends switching from a traditional to a tankless water heater.

“The difference being that the tankless heats the water as it comes through the unit versus on a tank unit we’re literally heating 50 gallons of water 24/7 all the time,” he said.

Champneys also recommended adding a recirculation pump to either tank.

“A recirc pump eliminates that troublesome time that we all have when we have to run the cold water for 3, 4, 5 minutes waiting for the hot water to get there,” he said.

However, the easiest thing to start with is lightbulbs.

“Traditional incandescent bulbs, that’s a 60-watt bulb, the equivalent of LED uses about 9 watts so you can cut your energy bill from about $50 per bulb to about $5 per bulb to operate per year,” Champneys said.

He also recommends installing a smart thermostat and motion lights or switches.

“Smart thermostats are connected to the internet and can integrate with your phone and your location so when you arrive home it automatically turns the heat up when you leave it automatically turns it down,” he said. “If you have a closet light that your kids are constantly leaving on you can install a motion switch on that closet and when you go into the closet it will turn the light on when you leave it will turn itself off.”

One major key to energy saving is knowing what is costing you money, so Champneys also recommends having a smart panel.

“Where you can actually look on your phone and see what each circuit is costing you to run and so you can make a more educated decision as to what to put your energy into within your house,” he said.

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