Californians: How to Get Paid to Use Less Electricity

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In recent months, Californians have probably noticed their electric bills creeping up and up and up.

And there’s no real sign of slowing the trend. You’re still spending the majority of your time at home, and with summer fast approaching, you’ll soon be running your A/C nonstop.

But what if we said you could get paid to use less electricity?

No, that doesn’t mean you have to sit in a dark, hot room all day. It just means you have to use less than one company thinks you will.

Seriously. One hour a week, a company called OhmConnect will challenge you to use less electricity than it thinks you will, and, if you do, you’ll get paid.

Challenge Accepted: How to Get Paid to Use Less Electricity

OhmConnect is all about saving energy in California, so if you can use less electricity than it thinks you will, it wants to pay you.

Here’s how it works: About once a week, OhmConnect will text you and ask you to use less electricity for one hour. Yup — that’s just one hour of unplugging your Keurig, holding off on laundry and cutting back on your A/C.

If you use less electricity than OhmConnect thinks you will, it’ll pay you.

This is totally doable, too. OhmConnect sets your usage benchmark using the historical data it collects from your meter.

For example, it could text you and ask you to use less electricity between 6 and 7 p.m. on Thursday this week. Your benchmark is based on how much electricity you used during that same time period over the past 10 days. So basically, you just have to use a little less than you normally would.

It’s fun to turn this into a challenge for the family. That’s what Visalia, California, resident Tanya Williams did. She got all her kids involved, and they earned an extra $1,700 in one year — more than $140 a month. About once a week, the stay-at-home mom shut down her home’s electrical panel and took the kids to the pool or just played board games.

So do you think you can rise to the challenge? It could pay off. Literally.

It takes just a few minutes to sign up and connect your account .

Carson Kohler ( carson@thepennyhoarder.com) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s seen a major hike in her electric bill these past few months.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.