Friday Night Lights, Saturday Morning Bills: How to Save on Electricity During Texas Football Season

As the 2025 Texas high school football season kicks off this weekend, there's something beautifully ironic happening across the Lone Star State. While our schools are spending up to $877,260 on fancy new LED stadium lights to save 75% on electricity costs, many of us football fans are about to see our own electricity bills spike from all that game-watching, tailgating, and celebrating.

But here's the thing: if Texas high schools can cut their electricity costs by three-quarters with smart upgrades, surely we can learn a thing or two about saving on our own Friday night (and Saturday afternoon, and Sunday evening) electricity bills.

The Friday Night Lights Reality Check

Let's talk numbers that'll make your head spin faster than a Hail Mary pass. Texas has 1,305 high school football stadiums scattered across our great state. That's more stadiums than some countries have people! Each Friday night, these stadiums light up like miniature cities, and the electricity bills are absolutely staggering.

Take Katy ISD's Legacy Stadium, for example. This $70 million masterpiece saw its maintenance costs drop from $451,000 in 2021 to $401,000 in 2023—and the bulk of those savings came from switching to energy-efficient lighting. One district we researched spent $750,000 just to upgrade their stadium lights to LED, but they're now saving thousands every month in electricity costs.

Here's the kicker: these LED upgrades are saving schools 50-75% on their electricity bills compared to those old metal halide lights that used to drain power like a broken faucet drains water.

Your Home Game Plan for Electricity Savings

So what can we learn from these high-tech stadium upgrades? Plenty, as it turns out.

Just like coaches prep their teams before kickoff, you need to prep your home before the big game. Here's the play:

3 hours before kickoff: Crank your AC down to 72°F and let it super-cool your house. You're essentially "banking" coolness for later, just like those stadiums pre-charge their systems.

Game time: Bump that thermostat back up to 76-78°F and rely on ceiling fans to keep comfortable. Your house will coast through the entire game without your AC working overtime during peak demand hours.

For a typical 3-hour game, this strategy can save you 15-20% on cooling costs compared to keeping your AC running full blast the whole time.

Here's where Texas football fans have a massive advantage over other sports: our games happen on weekends! Several electricity providers offer "free weekend" plans that are basically designed for people like us who live for Friday night lights and Saturday afternoon college games.

Reliant's Truly Free Weekends plan gives you free power from 8pm Friday through midnight Monday—which covers virtually every high school, college, and NFL game you'll want to watch.

But here's the catch (there's always a catch, right?): you need to use more than 65% of your electricity during those free hours to actually save money. The weekday rates are higher to compensate. Think of it like this—if you're the type of fan who watches Friday night high school, Saturday college games, and Sunday NFL, these plans could be your MVP.

Let's be honest: half the fun of Texas football is the tailgating and watch parties. Here's how to keep your electricity bills from scoring against you:

Fire up the grill, not the oven. Outdoor cooking doesn't heat up your house, meaning your AC doesn't have to work harder to cool things back down. Plus, everything tastes better grilled anyway—even those game-day nachos on a cast iron skillet.

Smart TV settings matter. Drop your TV's brightness by 20% and enable eco-mode. Most people can't tell the difference during exciting plays, but your electricity meter sure can. A 65" TV in eco-mode uses about 30% less power than at full blast.

Batch your game-day laundry. Wait until after 10pm to run your washer and dryer. Night rates are almost always cheaper, and you'll avoid adding heat and humidity to your house during the day.

The Stadium Comparison That'll Blow Your Mind

Want some perspective on your home electricity usage? Here's a fun fact that'll make you feel better about your own bills:

One LED stadium light upgrade that costs $750,000 could power 175 average Texas homes for an entire year. Your 65" TV watching every single game all weekend long uses less electricity than just one of those massive stadium light poles.

Even if you're the most dedicated fan who watches games from Thursday night through Monday night football, your entire weekend of game-watching uses roughly the same amount of electricity as one of those stadium lights running for about 20 minutes.

Suddenly your electricity bill doesn't seem so scary, does it?

The Game-Winning Play

As the 2025 football season kicks off this weekend (August 28-30), now's the perfect time to reassess your electricity plan. With the current Texas average rate sitting at 16.53 cents per kWh and competitive plans available as low as 8.6 cents per kWh, switching providers could save you more than all these game-day tips combined.

Just like those smart stadium managers who invested in LED upgrades to slash their long-term costs, the smartest move you can make is finding an electricity plan that works with your football-watching lifestyle, not against it.

Whether you're cheering for your local Friday night heroes under those bright LED lights or hosting the ultimate Sunday watch party, remember this: Texas football brings us together, but smart electricity choices keep more money in your pocket for what really matters—season tickets and team gear.

Ready to find your game-winning electricity plan? Upload your current bill and see how much you could save this football season. Because in Texas, the only thing better than a touchdown is a lower electricity bill that leaves you with more money for what matters most—supporting your team!

Hook 'em, Horns up, and may your electricity bills be lower than your team's score! 🏈