Reducing Home Energy Costs

Figure 1 - Real U.S. Electricity Prices In reviewing the electricity price trends over the past 50 years (see Figure 1) the current average U.S. real electricity prices (in 2007 dollars) are at a level consistent with the industry’s lowest real levels experienced in the 1960s. These relatively low real electricity costs have had the general tendency to discourage energy efficiency initiatives...

Energy Star Heating and Cooling

ENERGY STAR Label-Energy Efficiency Heating and cooling accounts for almost half of the total energy used by a typical residential customer. Independent of specific purchasing decisions and the choices regarding the selection of heating and cooling equipment, there are a number of operating and maintenance activities consumers should do to maximize the efficiency of these devices These activities...

Low-Income Residential Electric Customers

Unpaid Electric Bills – A Growing Problem Collecting unpaid electric bills has become a major and growing challenge to electic utilities as the number of low or no-income customers grows with changing economic conditions. Since 2006, utilties have seen a 70 to 80 percent increase in their uncollectible receivables, requiring the industry to implement programs that rely on the collaboration...

Programmable Controllable Thermostats (PCT)

Programmable Controllable Thermostats (PCT), typically key elements to any energy efficiency initiatives, allow customers to save energy and money by offering programmed settings to regulate temperature, be it winter or summer, day or night. Studies indicate that the average annual energy bill for a typical household totals $2,200, half of which goes to heating and cooling the premises. Properly...

Energy Efficient Dishwashers

Advanced Technology uses Less Water and Energy The consumer appliance market is flooded with improved dishwasher models that apply advanced technology to clean dishes while using less water and energy. These technologies include Soil sensors that can actually test the cleanliness of dishes throughout the wash cycle and adjust the cycle to maximize cleaning while minimizing water and energy...

Energy Efficient Refrigerators

With recent improvements in insulation and compressors, refrigerators in general are much energy efficient. Consumers can realize further savings in energy consumption and costs with the purchase of an ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerator: Per U.S. Department of Energy requirements, to receive the ENERGY STAR label all refrigerators and freezers must be at least 20 percent more efficient than the...

Improving Home Energy Efficiency by Sealing and Insulating

Studies continue to show that sealing and insulating one’s home in the outer walls, ceilings, windows, doors, and floors is among the most cost-effective ways to improve energy efficiency and provide comfort. Residential customers can often expect to save 20 percent on their heating and cooling costs (i.e. 10 percent of their total annual energy bill) by sealing air leaks throughout the home to...

The ABCs of the Smart Grid

Smart Grid-Improved Reliability The U.S. electric power grid consists of more than 300,000 miles of transmission lines weaving there way across the country that despite its age performs remarkably well. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) assigns it a reliability rating in excess of 99.9 percent However, the relatively few outages that do occur each year in the U.S. cost the American economy an...

Net Metering – A Developing Concept

What is Net Metering The prospect of dwindling energy resources and increased attention to environmental stewardship have expanded the role consumers can play in improving energy efficiency. Certainly the installation of solar panels on roofs and turning off of lights and appliances when not in use contribute to these initiatives. Despite these best of intentions, the problem of unused (i.e....

Integration of MDMS and OMS

Outage Management-An Evolving Process The electric industry has come a long way since the 1980s with respect to service restoration during unplanned system outages: The manual process of collecting and sorting trouble reports to the call center and manually discerning patterns from which to generate work orders has largely been replaced by sophisticated algorithms of computerized outage...