The Full Story Behind Your Utility Bill
The Full Story Behind Your Utility Bill: Why Some Memphis Homes Are Expensive to Heat and Cool.
By Jasmine Worles and April Steele, Memphis i-team
“My friend told me I’m setting my thermostat too low, but I’m like, ‘How else are we supposed to get it cool in here?’ I just have to deal with the bill because I’ve got to keep my kids comfortable.”
– North Memphis Resident
We’ve heard this story from countless Memphians. If you’ve opened your MLGW bill lately and felt like you got hit with a number that came from nowhere, you’re not alone. Why are our monthly bills so unaffordable when our electricity rates are 25% lower than the national average?
The story we’ve been telling ourselves about high utility costs may be missing one of the biggest contributing factors.
Nearly 80%
Nearly 80% of Memphis area homes were built prior to 1950, before energy codes even existed. Before insulation requirements. Before modern HVAC systems. These older homes leak air in the winter and trap heat in the summer, forcing our systems to run longer and harder to keep up.
When the Memphis Innovation Team (i-team) asked residents about climate resilience, we got the message loud and clear: energy costs have Memphians hot, literally and figuratively. Memphis has the highest rates of energy burden in the nation. Energy burden is the percentage of a household’s income spent on utilities; anything higher than 6% is considered extreme. Two out of every five households in Shelby County experience high energy burden.
And this problem isn’t spread evenly across the city. For more than 40 years, poverty in Memphis has been most concentrated in North and South Memphis. In these predominantly Black neighborhoods, families are paying 5-9% of their income on energy costs, more than double the citywide average.
This means that residents living in some of the oldest housing in Memphis are, more often than not, the same people who’ve had the fewest resources to make repairs or update their heating and cooling systems. That’s the real equation behind a high bill. An old house. A hot summer. And all too often, not enough money to fix what’s actually wrong.
Our team has been working to help the City tackle the intersecting issues of aging homes, poverty, and deferred maintenance that have been eating away at our homes and wallets. But systems are slow to change, and residents need help now. When the City brought energy efficiency resources into a South Memphis neighborhood at our EmPOWER the Block pop-up event in May, more than 350 people showed up. Nearly 9 in 10 told us they learned something valuable that day.
“[This event] means that our community members will get an opportunity to experience what’s available in terms of energy savings.”
-Ron Miles, Magnolia Castalia Community Association Member
That response told us something important. People don’t just want to vent about their bills. They want to know what, if anything, is actually within their control.
Here are a few low-cost measures most people can do themselves:
Seal air leaks around your home and install weatherstripping around doors and windows, which can save you up to 15% on heating and cooling costs
Install a programmable or smart thermostat, which can cut heating and cooling bills by 10% to 15%
Take care of your HVAC system by replacing filters every 2-3 months and doing seasonal tune ups in the spring and fall to keep your system working efficiently
Of course, none of this will fix the problem if a home needs a new roof or other major repairs, and the City is working to address these issues too. For years, the City’s federal weatherization program had to turn away more than two-thirds of applicants because their homes needed major repairs before energy-efficiency improvements could begin. To address that gap, the City’s Division of Housing and Community Development recently piloted the Residential Repair and Rehabilitation Assistance Program, which prioritizes structural repairs so residents can then access weatherization services.
As Memphis works towards Mayor Young’s goal of 10,000 new or rehabbed homes by 2030, the i-team is focused on making housing quality and preservation a priority alongside infill development. We’re creating a digital catalogue of housing resources and workshopping a “one front door” approach with weatherization partners like MLGW and TVA to reduce the hassle of figuring out which programs to apply for. For contractors, we’re partnering with the Memphis Area Minority Contractors Association to launch the Builder Bench Accelerator Pilot, a capacity-building program to help firms navigate complex government procurement processes and increase the number of local companies who can contribute to the solution.
We’re also calling on every developer and builder: The responsibility is yours too. You have the chance to build homes that don’t just look good on the outside but also have quality materials on the inside—homes that are comfortable, enduring, and more efficient and affordable to live in.
On November 14, EmPOWER the Block returns, this time in the Klondike-Smokey City community at Klondike Park from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. We’ll be bringing partners like Lowe’s, TVA, and MLGW to provide hands-on workshops, free energy efficiency giveaways, and valuable information that can help you take home maintenance and utility costs into your own hands. Meet us there. We’ll be ready to help.