Posted by
erinvanvuuren
on December 14, 2012
in
Duke Energy Tools, tips
Good news for you smartphone users: Our new mobile website is up and running! Here’s a rundown of the features.
- Report outages
- Check the status of outages
- View your account
- Find payment locations
- Contact Duke Energy
- Update your contact info
- Pay your bill (coming in spring 2013)
If you want to manage your account from your phone, you’ll need to log in using your Online Services username and password. If you don’t have an Online Services account yet, sign up for one today.
What’s so different about using the mobile site (as opposed to visiting the full site from your phone)? Basically, it’s a whole lot easier to find what you need, and to keep an eye on your outages and account. And you can always click over the full site anytime.
The new Duke Energy mobile site is now available on Android-based smartphones and tablets, Apple smartphones and tablets, and BlackBerrys with operating system 7.0 or higher.
Give it a try and let us know what you think!
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This year resolve to simplify your life by combining your Duke Energy billing and payment options. Combining payment options is the easiest way to pay! Paperless Billing, Equal Payment Plan/Budget Billing and Automatic Monthly Payment work great together to make paying your monthly bills as easy as possible. Combine all three and you’ll be surprised at how simple it can be. Each payment option offers its own unique convenience to save you time and effort.
- Paperless Billing lets you receive and, if you choose, pay your bill online. No paper. No check. No stamp. No fuss. Easy. Paperless Billing is a free service providing you the convenience to receive, view and pay your bill online.
- Equal Payment Plan/Budget Billing is a free service that makes managing your cash flow easier by providing predictable monthly payments. Add Equal Payment Plan/Budget Billing and know what to expect from your monthly bill. Then pay it in an instant with e-Bill.
- Automatic Monthly Payment will pay your bill automatically with bank draft. Combined with Paperless Billing and Equal Payment Plan/Budget Billing, it makes receiving and paying your bill nearly effortless. The Automatic Payment Plan is a free service that automatically pays your energy bill by drafting funds from your bank account on or after your payment date.
It’s so simple to simplify! Visit http://www.duke-energy.com/equal-payment-plan/ to enroll into one or a combination of payment options. Happy New Year!
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If you’ve found this website, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re interested in learning more about how to save energy and money. So if you’re one of the many folks whose ready to get serious about saving, the first thing to do is know where you stand today—and that’s easy to do with a Personalized Energy Report!
Your Personalized Energy Report (which we call a PER [pronounced ‘purr’] around the office. Cute, huh?) is a free, easy and powerful tool. After completing a brief energy survey online, you’ll immediately get personalized recommendations tailored to your home and your life. With easy to understand explanations and helpful charts, you will see your home’s energy usage is broken down by heating, lighting, water and more.
After you learn more about the way you use energy today, your PER will pinpoint specific energy saving opportunities that you can do right away to start saving.
Here’s how it works:
- Log in to Duke Energy Online Services.
First time here? Then register for your free account.
- Click Personalized Report page on the right side of your Online Services home page.
- Complete the Home Energy Survey.
- You’ll immediately get personalized recommendations on ways you can conserve and save.
Have you gotten your PER yet? Where did it help you start saving energy? Share your experience in the comments!
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How much can a new cooling system save?
Here at Youtility we’ve been talking a lot about new energy-efficient air conditioning units the past few weeks. So, how much energy can you really save by installing a new unit? If only there was app for that. Oh yeah, there is – Duke Energy’s own Cooling Calc or Cooling System Calculator, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
After entering your zip code, type of home and details regarding square-footage, current air conditioner age and furnace type, our Cooling Calc provides an estimated lifetime savings based on the installation of a new energy-efficient cooling system.
The calculator also provides savings estimates broken down into annual dollar, lifetime dollars, kWh and CO2. New unit estimates are broken down by system type, size, replacement cost and annual energy cost.
If you’re considering a new unit, you can find more information about purchase incentives and a list of participating contractors, who can provide you with further details on costs and estimated savings, at duke-energy.com/smartsaver.
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Break Down Your Bill
Figuring out your energy use shouldn’t require an engineering degree or an advanced Excel spreadsheet. And, thankfully, if you’re a Duke Energy customer, it doesn’t. Our Bill Analysis tool is available for use night and day.
The Duke Energy Bill Analysis tool allows you to compare your current month’s energy use to previous months or other set periods of time so you can see how your energy use trends throughout the year. The tool even presents weather information that coincides with each billing period so you can see how the weather affected your energy use and it provides for tips specific to you on how to better manage your family’s energy use. You can also update your profile in the system to see how any new appliances may be affecting your bill.
The more information you enter, the more detailed the tool becomes. It’s a great tool. And, it’s free.
Simply log in to Duke Energy Online Services. You can click the Bill Highlights section on the middle of the page for a snapshot of your monthly bill or the Bill Analysis link to get an in-depth view of your account.
Have you used the Bill Analysis tool? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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I love January 1st. I especially love the brand-new calendar, empty of dates and to-do’s but filled with promise, hope, and possibilities. A new year is like a clean slate, where anything is possible.
With this perspective, and perhaps a bit of a haze leftover from the holiday “cheer”, I think about my New Year’s resolutions. Like forty-something percent of my fellow Americans, I use this time of optimism to set goals for the year. At some point in my life, I have tackled most of the “top ten” of popular resolutions, focusing on money, health and quality time with loved ones. I have had varying levels of success, resulting in some of the resolutions being repeats on my list and some, much to my surprise, lasting beyond the end of January.
This year, my resolutions will once again focus on money, health and loved ones but with an energy efficiency slant.
Money. With the fairly gloomy economic outlook, “save more, spend less” is becoming a common mantra in American households. In our house, our version is going to be “save more energy, spend less money”. A lofty sounding goal but how do I accomplish it? Starting with the easy tips on this website, I’m going to make a list of 12 tips (one for each month) to do in 2012. By signing on to Duke Energy’s online services, I will be able to compare my savings from the prior year’s spending. Maybe not an exact science but I know if I overcomplicate this, my likelihood of sticking with it will be much less likely!
Health. I’ve mentioned in a prior blog that my slow cooker is one of my favorite appliances. I’m going to invest a bit of time looking for some healthier versions of my favorite recipes. I’m also going to seek out a few ways to use my microwave beyond popping popcorn and melting butter. When I do my meal-planning each month, I will incorporate one new healthier meal a week. 52 new recipes over the course of the year seem pretty doable.
Loved ones. Ah, yes… the family. Achieving MY resolutions requires getting the guys in my house onboard. This may require some stealth and mom-ingenuity. But I am determined to succeed in spending more quality time together AND have their help in “save more energy, spend less money”! My “how to” plan? First, our family nights are going to shift from sitting-in-front-of-the-TV-with-laptops to blowing-the-dust-off-the-board-games. Second, we are going to use the plethora of reusable water bottles we have for more than lacrosse games; I am going to recruit my son to keep the dozen or so bottles we have filled and in the fridge. Double win on this one: less plastic waste AND we fill up the extra space in the fridge to maximize the energy use. Lastly, I’ve signed the hubby up to run a 10K with me in the spring – we are going to get healthy and moving together. But let’s keep that between us until I figure out how to finesse that one.
Are you a resolution-maker? What are you going to do in 2012 to “save more energy, spend less money”? Please share your ideas with us – and check back with us for more tips to try.
Happy 2012!
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Posted by
Brittany Lyke
on September 7, 2011
in
Duke Energy Tools
Sure, you know about how much to spend on lunch today. But how much will you spend on power for your home?
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Posted by
Brittany Lyke
on July 18, 2011
in
Duke Energy Tools
For some strange reason, it just isn’t as fun to get mail these days as it was when I was a kid. (That probably has something to do with the fact that my late grandfather loved to send my sister and I money for just about every holiday…) Now though, if the letter isn’t a bill, it’s just junk. And I don’t like to waste my time or paper.
After a seriously bad junk mail day (12 pieces!), I started thinking: I’m on the national Do Not Call registry, and I have a pretty solid spam filter on my email. So why not investigate ways to take back my mail box, too?
Here’s what I’ve tried able to do so far:
- Convert all paper bills to paperless billing. Duke Energy, like many other companies, offers a paperless billing option. This is super simple for me, because I’m always chasing a 2 year old and seem to be perpetually out of stamps. Now that my mortgage, utility and cable bills are automated, I don’t have to worry about missing anything.
- Cancel my paper catalogs and opt-in to store email programs instead. Paper catalogues were doing me no favors, and usually just piled up in inconvenient places. I canceled the booklets and opted into email programs, and got an unexpected bonus: coupons! I didn’t realize that many of my favorite stores were publicizing deals online that I was missing out on.
- Sign up on free opt-out websites. There’s a handful of free websites that allow you to opt out of many of the largest direct mailing lists. These free services won’t cover everything, but signing up is a big head start. There are also several paid subscriptions available through websites like 41pounds. I haven’t signed up for a paid subscription just yet—but am seriously considering it.
- Be proactive. Be wary of sweepstakes, product warranty cards and other non-essential cards that require your name and address in exchange for small tokens. More often than not the data being collected is sold directly to large volume mailing lists.
With a few simple steps, hopefully you’ll find the volume of junk and bills decrease significantly—so when you open up that mailbox, there will be mail you actually enjoy opening. SO follow the steps listed above and start taking back your mailbox today.
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