Why It Could Cost You More to Beat the Heat This Summer
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Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, June 25th. I'm Arianna Espuru for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. We're getting to the end of a hot, sweaty June for many parts of the country, which means you can expect your first electricity bill of the season to come in soon. And higher natural gas prices mean that if you've been in the habit of keeping that AC at a cool 65 or forgetting to turn it off when you're out, get ready to pay up.
The average power bill this summer in America will be up about 3% to about $173 a month. So it doesn't sound like a lot, but for some people it will be significant and other people might pay less.
So how much are you going to feel that electricity bill this summer? Our commodities reporter Ryan December joins me to talk about it after the break.
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Staying cool this summer is coming at a big cost. WSJ reporter Ryan December joins me to discuss. Ryan, it's still early in the summer, but just how hot do forecasts say it's going to get later this season?
You may have thought summer started a few weeks ago, depending on where you live in the country.
How will this summer's heat waves affect household electricity demand?
We are sort of on pace for record hot June. And that's not just in terms of absolute temperature, but also a measure called cooling degree days, which energy traders use to judge demand. And it's basically a population weighted measure of temperatures over 65 degrees. So sort of the baseline of comfort. You get a lot more cooling degree days and a lot more demand when temperatures are in the 90s or even into triple digits in many parts of the country.
This means that tons of people are going to be cranking up the AC. I know that I am. And sending those electricity bills through the roof. On average, how much can we see these bills increasing this summer?
So the U.S. Energy Information Administration has forecast that the average power bill this summer in America will be up about 3% to about $173 a month. And that's, you know, June, July and August. And that's only about $5 more than last year. But again, keep in mind, this is an average over the whole country. Some people will pay a lot more than last year. Some people may pay a little less than last year. And of course, factors like how large your home is, what you keep your thermostat at, how well your home is insulated, all those things are going to factor in. So this is just sort of a baseline where the general trajectory is more. So it doesn't sound like a lot, but for some people, it will be significant.
And other people might pay less. You're going to see... A much bigger jump if you live in, say, New York or the mid-Atlantic states and on the Pacific coast. Bills will probably be lower than last year in New England and also around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, although those folks will still probably have the biggest bills in the country on account of it being so hot down there.
You mentioned some of those individual factors. Are there broader trends that influence people's energy bills?
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