If your recent power bills are making you sweat more than the hot summer sun, there may be a few things you can do to lower your monthly electricity expenditures.

SaskPower has recently made statements of the overall power usage in the province rising, however by being proactive and by reporting your own usage numbers, you can ensure your costs are staying as low as possible.

Jordan Jackle, SaskPower spokesperson, said that they only do actual meter readings quarterly, leaving the time in between as an estimation based off your power usage from the year before during the same months. Therefore, since it is common to see weather fluctuations between seasons on a year-to-year basis, those esitmations may not be overly accurate. Jackle stated that any differences, higher or lower will be reflected on the quarterly billing when the meter is actually read.

If you would like to avoid the estimations and ensure accurate billing on a month-to-month basis, you can submit your own meter readings every month through the SaskPower website, over the phone, or through their mobile app.

Jackle said beside submitting your own meter readings, there are other steps you can take to keep your power bill as low as possible.

For instance, by making sure your furnace, and air conditioning unit, has been properly serviced and the filter is clean will allow it to work efficiently not draining unneeded power. Even in the summer months when the furnace may be off, the fan might still run to circulate air and needs a clean filter in order to do so efficiently.

Other tips include, unplugging items that could draw power even though they are off, especially if you are going on vacation etc. Also, trying to keep your house cool naturally with black out curtains and limiting using appliances that cause heat until the cooler times of the day, will avoid making your air conditioning unit from working overtime.

Jackle stated that with the continual increase in power demand within the province, a lot of that may be behavioral and contributed to new devices and technologies that require power that have become part of our everyday life. You may not give using these devices a second thought, but they may be part of the reason for an increase on your next power bill.

Jackle also emphasized that if you ever do have a discrepancy with your power bill, always call the SaskPower customer service line to either make sense of it or to rectify any mistakes that may have been made.