welcome back to River City live all
right the Florida heat is still upon us
there's no escape from it and it's
driving upper energy bills so guess what
we have expert help
Janina Baxter what Florida Power and
Light is here to help us out to reduce
those bills but this time around we're
talking about technology how to use it
again reduce those bills and the last
time you're on I was listening and
taking notes and the number one driver
for that energy bill to go up happens to
be yes the hotter it is outside think
about it your a/c is running longer to
keep you cool so that's why we have
these smart technology tips we can use
to help customers beat the heat and save
on those bills all right now when you
say technology one of the things that I
like we're kind of outsourcing at to
technology to make our lives easier so
where do we start with all this yes so
one great place to start with smart tech
is a smart thermostats smart thermostats
are great install them in your home and
then you can have an app on your phone
that allows you to turn up the
thermostat so let's say you go to work
and you forget to turn it up it's really
easy
turn it up using your app on your phone
and you're all set for the day all right
and what temperature should we have it
set at we recommend 78 degrees for
energy savings and then when you're not
home actually turning that up to 82
degrees now it might be a little warm
for some the key here is every degree
you raise your thermostat saves you 5%
on your monthly cooling costs and that
is huge so definitely worth doing and
again we only have a couple more months
of this extremely hot temperature so we
could do that that's fine and I like
what you said too because we're using
technology let's just say we have a
longer day at work or other plans we
could adjust it to keep it higher while
we're gone absolutely it's all about
taking control of your energy use all
right so what next
another great tech tip is lighting so
lighting is a large energy driver in
your home replacing traditional bulbs
with LEDs can save you up to 90% less
energy which is great I mean they last
ten times as long so that's another
great technology tip to apply and easy
to do that's what I like about all these
things they're kind of simple but
they're making a huge impact on that
bottom line and then over here the smart
plug you talked about it last time
you're on I was really intrigued because
I didn't realize that we had that
technology out right now smart plugs are
awesome in that it's similar to the
thermostat you can control whatever you
have plugged in from an app on your
phone so let's say your kids forget to
turn off
their lights on occasion you can check
that out and say hey everybody left the
lights on go through and turn all those
lights off and again that's small
incremental savings that adds up on your
energy bill I remember last time you're
on you were saying that the a/c bill is
one of the highest but second our homes
that actually have pools right and
there's technology out there to help
with that yes so for homes that have
pools the pool and the pool pump can
tend to be the second highest energy
user couple quick pool tips if you're
replacing your pool pump we recommend
you look at maybe a variable-speed pool
pump which tend to be more energy
efficient but even for any pool that you
do have in the summer especially look to
see if you can cut back that runtime
even reducing your runtime by two hours
a day can translate to savings on your
bill all right so that's really
important now not everybody has a pool
but I'll tell you everybody does have
access to the web and you guys have a
mobile app yes so the FPL mobile app is
a great way for customers to take
control of their energy usage and save
on their bill so you can go to the App
Store or Google Play
download the app once you have it you
can view your bill pay your bill we also
have a really cool feature called
projected bill now with your projected
bill you can see what your bill is going
to be before it arrives so let's say you
have two weeks left in your billing
cycle it's a great opportunity to use
those two weeks to try to reduce your
energy usage which is going to translate
to reducing your bill when it comes at
the end of your cycle I really like that
because it's giving you control of what
to do because a lot of times that bill
comes up and you're like what do we do
wrong what do we do differently but this
is helping you be proactive to helping
you make those decisions now one of the
things we talked about is obviously
being online you guys have a great
website what's the website
absolutely so FPL comm slash beat the
heat we offer energy saving tips tools
you can also take a free online home
energy survey and with that survey you
can get a personalized customized plan
for your home and for how you use energy
that can save you up to $300 a year it's
all online
FPL comm slash beat the heat wow that is
great all right so so much information
provided today that will really help you
to drive down the energy bill thank you
for all the tips I appreciate it thank
you for having us and beat the heat all
right stick around more to come right
after this