The pandemic may hang over this holiday season, but there’s still plenty of reason to get in the spirit and decorate your home. Americans spend about $233 million on holiday lights each year, according to Wired magazine, so CUB has tips to help you cut down on your electricity costs. Switch to…...
Beware High Bills! A Halloween Special
Although Halloween classics like Count Dracula, Freddie Krueger and Michael Meyers cause a fright, few things are scarier than paying high energy bills. In honor of the spooky season, CUB staffer Cate York created a new video, “Beware High Bills: A Halloween Special.” It’s a fun, quick summary of the…...
A CUB How-To: Downloading Your Bills
CUB often encourages consumers to sign up for online billing through their utility. It’s convenient and easy, and there are oftentimes perks or programs that are only available through an online account. But navigating a new online space can be confusing, so CUB staffer Cate put together a few videos…...
CUB services helping consumers cut their utility bills $26/month
CUB services have saved participants an average of about $26 a month on their utility bills, according to a staff review. COVID-19 may have brought CUB’s in-person events to a halt, but that hasn’t stopped CUB’s outreach team from working hard to serve consumers through online events and services. Along…...
Help the environment and cut your costs with ComEd’s Time-of-Day pricing program
With the introduction of smart meters across Illinois, consumers have more options when it comes to how they use and pay for electricity. ComEd’s new Time-of-Day Pricing Program—which charges different electric rates during different periods of the day—is one such option. So how does the Time-of-Day program work? Most customers…...
CUB-Northwestern partnership yields new outreach materials
A class of Northwestern undergraduate students worked with CUB over the spring semester to fill gaps in the utility watchdog’s outreach efforts. Although COVID-19 and Illinois’ stay-at-home order caused the student teams to rethink aspects of their projects, CUB now has new and improved outreach materials, as well as new…...
Energy rip-offs have hit low-income communities hard, but here’s another reason the HEAT Act gives us hope
At CUB, we get reports that customers enrolled with alternative suppliers have been charged double or triple (or worse) for their electricity—and marketers have long preyed on the neighborhoods that can least afford to pay high power bills. That’s yet another reason we’re dedicated to making sure a new reform…...
Real-Time Pricing: Another way to save–just ask CUB staffers
Most people pay an electricity rate that only changes a few times a year, but real-time pricing offers a different way to pay for electricity. Instead of charging a standard price per kilowatt-hour, the utility charges program participants a supply rate that changes each hour. ComEd offers real-time pricing through…...
