Air conditioners have been humming this month with a heat warning in effect since Canada Day.
Bluewater Power President and CEO Janice McMichael-Dennis said she's surprised to see that power consumption hasn't really spiked.
"Interestingly enough, the load has been approximately constant, no significant increases," said McMichael-Dennis. "If I compare the last few days to the same days last year in 2019, we're actually in some cases perhaps even down a little bit. We always expect to see power consumption climb during a heat wave. What history shows us is that by day three is when you really start to see the impact. Well, we're beyond day three now of the heat wave and still not seeing it. Don't know exactly what to attribute that to, perhaps people are being super conscious of wise energy usage."
McMichael-Dennis said to help out your A/C and keep the house cool, keep windows and blinds closed.
"Ceiling fans are a cheaper way as opposed to air conditioning, even to supplement and take some of the strain off your air conditioning or central air," she said. "Of course keeping windows, blinds and doors closed. Blinds especially can really help bring down that temperature in a more cost-effective way. And then trying to set the temperature perhaps one or two degrees higher than what you ideally may like."
McMichael-Dennis said while the local power grid is in great shape, there's always concern about severe pop-up thunderstorms and lightning, wreaking havoc on the system.
She said there were a couple of power blips Wednesday due to lightning.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch Thursday for eastern Lambton County.