“It’s not just that it’s hot for one day, but it’s been hot for a period of days in a row,” Coffee said. “Watt usage will continue to go up even if the temperature remains the same because as air conditioners are run continuously, they can lose efficiency.”
The region has experienced hotter than normal temperatures, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures for June, July August have been between two and five degrees hotter than normal, according to Jeffrey Sites, a meteorologist at the NWS’s Wilmington station.
On July 23, when Lebanon hit its record peak, local temperatures were around 92 degrees and also the end of a work week, air conditioners would have run for five straight days. The average high for July is 86 degrees, Sites said.
Sites said humidity in the area has been higher than normal all summer, which adds to the heat.
Coffee believes a turn around in the local economy could also be contributing to the rise in power usage.
“Our larger users — factories and large businesses — are using more power on a month-by-month basis as compared to last year, which I think is the impact of an improved economy,” Coffee said.
Lebanon is not in any danger of experiencing black-outs because of the record usage, Coffee said. The city has spent more than $8 million over the past three years to expand capacity and replace aging equipment.
On Tuesday, Aug. 10, portions of the city experienced a three-hour black out due to the breaking of a transformer, but that incident was due to the equipment’s age and not an over abundance of demand for power, Coffee said.
Coffee suggested a number of ways to cut back on costs including replacing aging furnaces and air conditioners with more efficient models, installing programmable thermostats, and using compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Lebanon is the only municipality in Warren County that handle its own electric distribution. Most of the county is powered by Dayton Power and Light in the northern portion of the county and Duke Electric in the southern portion.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.
About the Author