Victory Electric offers cooperative member-owners many tips and tools to help you make smart energy choices and save money. Whether you have used our digital Energy Advisor tool at our website or read energy efficiency tips on our Facebook page and in this magazine, you likely know several ways you can save energy in and around your home. But did you know that when you use electricity can be just as important as how much you use?

Energy use throughout the day varies based on consumer demand. Most of us use larger amounts of electricity in the morning while getting ready for work or helping the kids get ready for school. We also use more electricity in the evenings while cooking dinner, washing clothes and dishes, watching television and powering up other electronics.

The times when we collectively use more electricity are often referred to as “peak hours” and typically occur from 7-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. Monday through Friday. As temperatures climb in late spring and summer, energy use is highest in the afternoon through evening hours. In winter, energy use tends to be highest in the early morning and late afternoon/evening.

Peak demand is the electric utility industry’s equivalent of rush-hour traffic and refers to the time of day when there is the most demand for electricity and the most pressure put on the electric grid. Because the market price for energy can spike during periods of heavy demand as well, the power needed to meet that demand costs Victory Electric and our member-owners more. When we collectively save energy during peak hours, we all benefit.

Looking for ways to improve energy efficiency at home and shifting some of your energy use to hours when demand is lower can help you and Victory Electric reduce demand, saving energy and money. Adjusting energy use to non-peak times also helps the system avoid service interruptions caused by high demand during extreme temperatures in the summer and winter.

Here are several easy ways you can shift energy use to off-peak hours:

• Adjust your thermostat; during summer months, raise the thermostat a few degrees during peak hours.

• Use ceiling fans, as they will provide a cooling effect to people in the room.

• Wash full loads of laundry in cold water during off-peak hours. Your washing machine model may also have a delay setting that allows you to schedule a load to start running at a later, off-peak time such as overnight or mid-morning.

• Start the dishwasher right before you go to bed, or air-dry dishes by opening the dishwasher instead of using the heated drying cycle.

• Turn off lights and electronics when not in use. This is a great daily habit to adopt during peak and off-peak hours.

There are many ways to save energy and money by making a few minor adjustments to your daily routine. Victory Electric member-owners can easily monitor how effective these small adjustments are by logging into your SmartHub account at victoryelectric.smarthub.coop or the SmartHub app. Click on “Usage” to view your energy usage on a monthly, daily or interval (hourly) basis and compare your usage during different billing periods.

At Victory Electric, we understand that electricity is more than a commodity––it’s a necessity. We will continue working hard to power your life, reliably and affordably, and we appreciate your efforts to help us save energy and keep energy costs down.