Shift Timing, Shift Savings

By:Mark Walling

As we set­tle into the heat of July, our homes nat­u­ral­ly use more elec­tric­i­ty. Air con­di­tion­ers run longer, refrig­er­a­tors work hard­er and dai­ly routines—from cook­ing din­ner to doing laundry—often over­lap dur­ing the warmest parts of the day. That’s also when the demand for elec­tric­i­ty across our com­mu­ni­ty is at its high­est.

At Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, our top pri­or­i­ty is deliv­er­ing safe, reli­able and afford­able pow­er when­ev­er you need it. But dur­ing peak ener­gy hours—2 PM – 6 PM—there’s added pres­sure on the grid as homes and busi­ness­es require larg­er amounts of elec­tric­i­ty, all at the same time. On the hottest days, that strain can be sig­nif­i­cant.

The good news is that small changes at home can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence.

Think of our elec­tric grid like a high­way sys­tem. Dur­ing rush hour, traf­fic is heavy, con­ges­tion builds and every­thing slows down. But when dri­vers adjust their sched­ules, even slight­ly, it helps ease the bot­tle­neck. The same prin­ci­ple applies to ener­gy use.

By shift­ing some of your high-ener­gy activ­i­ties to off-peak hours—like doing laun­dry lat­er in the evening, run­ning the dish­wash­er before you go to bed or cook­ing meals ear­li­er in the day—you’re help­ing spread out demand. That reduces pres­sure on the grid dur­ing those crit­i­cal peak hours.

Here are a few sim­ple steps you can take to low­er ener­gy use dur­ing peak hours.

Smart tech­nol­o­gy can be a valu­able part­ner in sav­ing ener­gy. A pro­gram­ma­ble or smart ther­mo­stat can auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjust your home’s tem­per­a­ture when demand is high­est, help­ing you stay com­fort­able while using ener­gy more effi­cient­ly. Even a small adjust­ment of a few degrees dur­ing peak hours can make a dif­fer­ence.

In the kitchen, sim­ple swaps can help, too. Using a slow cook­er, air fry­er or out­door grill instead of the oven keeps your home more com­fort­able and reduces the need addi­tion­al cool­ing dur­ing the warmer parts of the day. And when it comes to laun­dry, air-dry­ing clothes or spac­ing out loads can cut down on both ener­gy use and indoor heat.

Don’t over­look the pow­er of ceil­ing fans, either. They can help you feel sev­er­al degrees cool­er, allow­ing you to raise your ther­mo­stat set­ting with­out sac­ri­fic­ing com­fort.

These actions may seem small on their own, but togeth­er, they add up. When many mem­bers make mind­ful choic­es about when and how they use elec­tric­i­ty, it helps reduce peak demand, eas­es strain on the grid and sup­ports more sta­ble ener­gy costs for our local com­mu­ni­ties.

That’s the coop­er­a­tive dif­fer­ence. As a mem­ber, you’re not just a customer—you’re part of a com­mu­ni­ty work­ing togeth­er to pow­er our future. Every effort you make con­tributes to a stronger, more resilient sys­tem.

This sum­mer, I encour­age you to take a clos­er look at your dai­ly rou­tines. A few sim­ple shifts can go a long way in keep­ing your home com­fort­able, your ener­gy use effi­cient and our grid run­ning smoothly—no mat­ter how high the tem­per­a­tures climb.