Wow! The month of January saw the second highest kilowatt hour (kWh) usage for any month since 1996. One for the record books, Wood County Electric Cooperative (WCEC) residential users consumed 70 million kWh. That’s the highest Winter month kWh usage in recent history! Only February 2011 at 69 million, comes close.
What drove that? The extremely cold weather. Usage is always highest when the difference between the outside air temperature and what you want the inside temperature to be is greatest. The HVAC must work hard to compensate. And that was the case here. Just look.
When the temps are low (the red line) the blue bars depicting kWh, usage climb high. It’s very clear to see on January 17th where the low was 16 and it only reached 31 that day! Look how that blue bar peaked as the red line dipped!
If you, like others, were surprised by a high bill, read about levelized billing in our Payment Options page, When the extreme temperatures hit, you won’t be left out in the cold with a sky-high bill.