Bob Pierce answers questions about energy efficiency, consumer products, and cooperative governance. He is Clearwater Power’s Chief Operating Officer and welcomes your questions on our Ask Bob page.
Why did my neighbor have power when I didn’t?
The main feeder lines (the lines that carry power from our substations to your neighborhood) are 3-phase lines, meaning they have 3 energized conductors and a neutral wire. Residential accounts are typically only connected to 1 phase—A, B, or C.
Your house might be connected to the A phase while your neighbor is connected to the B or C phases. If a tree falls into the power line and breaks the A phase— but the B and C phases stay intact—then your house is out of power, while your neighbor’s power stays on.
I have a high-efficiency heat pump. Why was my January bill so high?
Most heat pump systems have 2 parts: an outdoor refrigeration unit and an electric furnace inside the house. The system uses the heat pump to pull heat out of the outside air until it gets too cold.
Once outdoor temperatures fall to 25 to 30 degrees, the system will switch to the electric furnace backup heat. In our area, it got so cold in January that your system likely operated on the furnace rather than the heat pump most of the month.
In addition to the extra energy required to heat your home during the extreme cold, efficiency also decreased by changing from the high-efficiency heat pump to the 100% efficient furnace. This creates a spike in your bill for a month or 2. However, if you look at the entire year, your heat pump system is half the cost of electric resistance heat.
One strategy for seeing a more consistent bill from month to month—regardless of the temperature—is to sign up for budget billing. With budget billing, your bill is based on your 12-month average rather than each month’s use, saving you from being hit with larger winter bills.