Review Your Energy Bill

Without even spending any time or money on reducing your carbon footprint, there are two quick ways a faith community can potentially reduce their energy bill:

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1. Review for Taxes

2. Review for Demand Billing

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Review for Taxes

Some faith communities discover that they are paying sales tax on their utility bills even though they are tax exempt. For example, after a bill review from MACED, power companies refunded the following in taxes that should not have been paid:

• David School in Floyd County $9,275

• Methodist Mountain Mission $2,741

• Red Bird Mission $396

• Meridzo Ministries over $1,600

You can check your faith community's bill and see if you are being charged sales tax. If you are, and if you are a tax exempt organization, contact your power company and ask for a refund.

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Review for Demand Billing

Many utility companies charge businesses, including faith communities, a “demand rate” in addition to the actual energy they use. These demand charges can be hundreds of dollars per month. You can find this line on your bill - the location varies by utility company.

While usage is the total amount of kilowatt hours you use, demand is how fast you use them and is measured in kilowatts.

 

To calculate demand, the utility company watches how much energy you use in 15 minute increments. The increment with the highest amount of energy determines what your demand rate be, and all of your usage will be billed at this demand rate - even if your building is empty most of the time!

 

So when you are opening up your building, try to time out when you start things up to span more than 15 minutes. For example, turn on the lights, wait several minutes, then turn up the heat two degrees, wait several minutes and then turn on your coffee pot, computer, etc.

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