Most Americans aren’t prepared for increased summer energy costs

Only 26% of people say they do any kind of budget preparation to handle the increased expenses of keeping their homes cool, DuraPlas survey finds.

Purpose

Summer is a time for swimming pools, ice cream outside, and family vacations. It’s a time for fun and relaxation, but it’s also a time when life can get expensive. That includes keeping our homes cooler. At a time when it’s still costing a little more for just about everything, we wondered how people were preparing for those increased energy costs that come from keeping our homes cool when it’s getting warmer outside.

To find out, we used the third-party platform Pollfish to conduct a survey of 600 Americans aged 18 and older. Among the topics we covered, we asked them how significantly they expected their energy costs to increase this summer, whether they had taken any financial steps to manage those increases, and where they’d cut back if they had to in order to handle higher cooling costs.?

Key Findings

• 74% of people do no financial preparation to be able to handle increases in energy bills in the summer.
• 77% of people expect some level of increase in our summer energy bills.
• 62% pay for summer cooling costs out of their regular income, with 48% saying they’d cut back on dining out and entertainment if belt-tightening became necessary.
• 63% report having to already make at least moderate adjustments to their lifestyle because of increasing energy costs, and nearly a quarter saying those adjustments have been significant.
• 32% say regular maintenance of their existing HVAC system would help them better control their summer cooling costs.

Despite knowing their energy consumption goes up in the summer and admitting that they expect to see some kind of increase in their energy bills in the coming months, most people also said they don’t take any financial steps—like saving money in the preceding months—to mitigate those jumps in bills.

This follows a lack of preparation we saw in a similar survey we did last summer. Only 30% of respondents then said they schedule regular HVAC maintenance. Without any reason to think people’s summer preparation habits have changed dramatically, and with respondents this year saying they do nothing to prepare for anticipated cost increases, most Americans seem to be leaving a lot to chance.

"Summer is a time for vacations, sun and serious fun--but that also means serious strain on the HVAC systems working around the clock to keep us cool," said Paul Phillips, President of DuraPlas. "Our survey shows that Americans aren't prepared for the dark shadow of HVAC issues they may encounter, and run the risk of increased costs from higher energy consumption or system repairs. But with a little financial prep, the right equipment and regular maintenance, families can step back into the sun with the confidence of knowing their HVAC system will be there to cool them off when they return."

77% of people expect some level of increase in their summer energy bills.

What may make this lack of financial preparation most surprising is that so many people know that they should do it. More than three-quarters of the people surveyed said they expect some level of increase in their energy bills this summer.

62% pay for summer cooling costs out of their regular income.

With most Americans living paycheck to paycheck—upwards of 75% of us, according to some data—this is where something as seemingly simple as how they pay their summer energy bills gets potentially scary. If, as we saw earlier, the vast majority aren’t planning for how we handle these increasing costs, that means we are having to pay for them with dollars that could already be spoken for. And that’s what most of America is doing—going month to month and making budget adjustments on the fly in order to manage higher-than-expected energy bills.?

The first place many say they’ll cut back if needing to tighten their belts is dining out and entertainment, but there are also a worrying number of people who say the cuts they make to handle increased energy costs will have to be deeper.

63% report having to make at least moderate adjustments to their lifestyle because of increasing energy costs.

In fact, many people are reporting that they’ve had to make changes to their lifestyles because they are already having to deal with increased energy costs.

32% say regular maintenance of their existing HVAC system would help them better control their summer cooling costs.

We mentioned before that in last year’s survey very few people schedule regular maintenance for their HVAC systems. Most people in this year's survey seemed to understand that keeping their systems in good working order is critical in keeping costs down.