As the heat goes up, people are looking for ways to keep their power bill down."

"There are a number of ways to conserve power as the mercury rises," shared Jordan Jackle, Media Relations and Issues Management Consultant with SaskPower. "One of them, especially if you have air conditioning, is to have your central air conditioner serviced by a professional technician. That person can make sure it is operating as efficiently as possible. You don't want it to be wasting power when it could be running far more efficiently."

"If you're still moving air around your house, even if you don't have air conditioning, using your furnace to move air from your cooler basement to the upstairs, be sure to replace your furnace filter. It's something that a lot of people don't think about in the summer because you associate your furnace with winter. But if you do have your fan on, the filter is still very important and could reduce the efficiency of your fan."

He added that if you plan on being away for a few days, it's a good idea to unplug electrical devices and switching off power bars.

"One of the big things we always talk about when we talk about power consumption and the increased power consumption, we see year to year that there is new technology and people are just generally using more technology than they once did, so you can just switch that off if you are going away on your summer vacation."

Another tip is to close your blinds on hot, sunny days or get room darkening blinds to prevent heat from coming in particularly on south-facing windows.

"Also, don't make more heat. If you can delay chores that produce heat and moisture, things like doing your laundry, running the dishwasher, cooking, if you can move that to later in the day when it's a little bit cooler, that will help out a lot as well."

He also advised planting a tree for shade however, he cautions against planting it under power lines.

"When we see a heat wave here at SaskPower, we'll be looking to see if we set another demand record because when we see the mercury rise, it's always a possibility. it was last year at this time where we set that record twice in July and then again in August. From our perspective, that's something we're always watching for and is a primary driver behind why we invest about a billion dollars each year to modernize and grow the province's electrical system."