AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday afternoon and evening, Texans were under a voluntary power conservation notice because of extreme heat and potentially record-setting demand across the state.
ERCOT is the agency that manages the state power grid. It is asking everyone to cut back on power use.
On Monday, Texas broke a peak power demand record, with people across the state using more than 79,000 mega watts of power. On Tuesday, ERCOT was projecting we would surpass that new record.
The conservation notice started at 4 p.m. Tuesday and lasted until 8 p.m.
Vic Fredlund with Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical said there are ways you can conserve energy while creating a "cooling effect."
"Your ceiling fans, if you have ceiling fans on house, run those. That's going to draw a lot less electricity than an air conditioner," Fredlund said.
Also, consider limiting use of your kitchen appliances.
"Try not to use your stove in the heat of the day," Fredlund said. "If you're running a 400-degree oven in the kitchen, then you're creating more heat."
Fredlund also pointed out another mistake people make when it comes to thermostat usage.
"A lot of people, when they leave for the day, they turn the thermostat up and some of them actually turn it off when you get home. And it's been 100 degrees outside, that air conditioning is going to run so much longer to bring it back down to your set point than you had just turned it up a couple of degrees and let it run while you were gone," Fredlund said.
Abacus crews told KVUE they had received 2,500 calls over the past 24 hours. If your air conditioning needs maintenance, experts say you want to get that done as soon as possible since we're experiencing hot temperatures earlier.