Turning down the thermostat one degree could save as much as 3% on one’s electric bill.

That’s according to Penelec officials who stress that inspections are being completed to ensure service reliability at the onset of winter.

“For every degree you can set your thermostat lower — dropping the temperature in your home — you can save about 3% on your electric bill,” Todd Meyers, senior communications rep with First Energy, told the Times Observer. “A few degrees in either direction can really make a difference: providing savings or leading to a larger-than-desired bill.

“Savings primarily come from running the blower motor on the furnace less which is used to circulate air throughout the home on a gas furnace,” he added.

Other tips to drive prices down include sealing leaks around windows and door frames, closing fireplace dampers when not in just, closing drapes at night, checking furnace fan filters and ensuring your home is property insulated.

A range of inspections are also underway to ensure the integrity of the system.

“Substation electricians inspect critical components using ‘thermovision’ cameras, which capture infrared images of equipment to detect potential problems that are not visible during regular visual inspections,” Meyers explained. “The infrared images show heat on a color scale, with brighter colors or ‘hot spots’ indicating loose connections, corrosion or other problems that require repairs. Utility workers can then proactively repair substation equipment to help prevent power outages as customers crank up their heaters to combat the cold.”

Meyers said helicopter inspections are also underway on about 2,500 miles of lines.

“The inspections are designed to look for damaged wire, broken cross arms and other hardware problems invisible from the ground,” he added.

Should outages occur, customers can get updates and restoration updates at firstenergycorp.com/outages.