Every now and then you run across a situation where instinct tells you to zig when you really ought to zag.

For saving electricity and keeping a few more dollars in your bank account, THIS SPACE is about to bend your mind around the idea of using electricity to save it.

This week’s ONE THING you can do to conserve energy is to try online billing for your utility bills and any other payments you need to make. The switch will increase your time on the computer, which would seem to increase your energy consumption, but this is a situation where one step back can lead to two or three steps forward.

Here’s why.

When you receive your bill and pay it online, you eliminate the need for your utility (like my employer, Seattle City Light) to print the bill and mail it to your home. There’s a whole lot of savings going on there, including the electricity to process wood pulp into paper, run the printing presses, stuff the envelopes and sort that mail.

That’s not even considering the trees that make that paper, or the gasoline to run the vehicles to deliver the raw materials and finished product at the various stages of the production and delivery cycle or the return trip with your payment.

Shifting to electronic delivery of the bill eliminates the physical production and distribution cycle. Less energy use means less impact on the environment, particularly in the area of greenhouse gas emissions tied to climate change.

For the customer, there’s the added convenience of being able to receive and pay a bill without tearing bill stubs, licking envelopes or remembering to drop the payment in the mail box. The customer also gets the immediate savings of 44 cents by avoiding the use of a stamp.

Another part of the savings is indirect for the customer.

When your utility can cut its billing costs, those savings translate into lower rates.

More than 19,000 customers have signed up for electronic billing with City Light since the utility started offering the service in January.

I’ve been steadily adding online billing to my different accounts recently and find myself struggling a bit when I have to pay one with a traditional check in the mail. I’ve grown accustomed to the convenience and my miserly side comes out when I have to attach the stamp to a paper bill.

So give electronic billing a try. If you hate it, you can always go back to the tactile sensations of getting a dead-tree version in the mailbox. If you like it, your bank account and your environment will thank you.