Chilly Weather Will Mean Higher Puget Sound Energy Heating Bills.

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- With temperatures dipping into the 20s this week, Puget Sound Energy today said customers should expect higher than normal heating bills next month due to greater use of their furnaces.

"Because of this week's arctic air, most of our customers turned up their thermostats to keep warm and the result will be higher heating bills," said Darren Brady, PSE vice president of customer services.

Puget Sound Energy offers customers ways to control their heating bills:

--Lowering a furnace thermostat at night or when no one is home is one of the best ways to lower a heating bill.

--Check the filter to your natural gas furnace every month during the heating season and clean or replace the filter when necessary.

--Don't block heating outlets or return registers with furniture or other objects.

--Caulk and weatherstrip drafty windows and doors.

--Make sure that fireplace dampers and glass fireplace doors are closed when the fireplace is not in use.

Brady encouraged customers who may have difficulty paying their PSE heating bills to call the utility to work out payment arrangements or to receive information about the Budget Payment Plan that evens out payments for a 12-month period. Customer assistance programs, such as PSE's HELP (Home Energy Lifeline Program), which provides assistance for income-eligible customers, and The Salvation Army Warm Home Fund, which extends short-term emergency bill assistance, also are available.

Customers can visit PSE's Web site at www.pse.com for energy-saving tips, or call PSE at 1-888-225-5773 for information about bill payment assistance.

Puget Sound Energy delivers natural gas service to 660,000 customers in Snohomish, King, Pierce, Thurston, Lewis and parts of Kittitas counties; and electric service to nearly 1 million customers in Whatcom, Skagit, Jefferson, Island, Kitsap, King, Pierce, Thurston and Kittitas counties.