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New
Year's Resolution: Get involved with your cooperative
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January 2012
Not everyone has the chance to become a member of a consumer-owned electric cooperative. But because you live in an area served by a cooperative utility, you also have the chance to get involved in the way it operates.
Electric cooperatives—like all kinds of cooperative businesses—are owned by the people who buy its product (electricity) and services. They’re not beholden to out-of-state investors. Their customers are their owners, and, in fact, the cooperative considers those owners as “members” of the utility.
As a consumer-member, you have the option of attending the utility’s annual meeting, of voting for the members of its board of directors, and even of running for a seat on the board if you want to.
You can tell board members your opinions about the utility, help keep your elected official informed about the needs of the cooperative and its consumer-members, and participate in special programs for residential consumers, businesses, teenagers and others.
Make 2012 the year you get involved with your electric cooperative. Which of the other businesses you buy products and services from invites you to do that? Take the opportunity to be a part of the business that you cooperatively own.
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Don't
fall for 'energy-saving' scams
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January 2012
You can cut your heating bill without investing a dime in equipment or materials.
Lots of companies are advertising expensive home improvements that they claim will save you huge sums on your electric bill. But if you read the fine print, you’ll often learn that one product on its own rarely has such power, and that most of them take years—even decades—to deliver the promised savings.
Save your money. It doesn’t have to cost you much—or anything—to stay toasty warm indoors this winter and shave a few bucks from your heating costs. Five examples:
1. Change your air filter. The filter’s job is to collect dust, pet hair and other particles that live in your home’s air so they can’t get into your furnace and clog it up. But if your filter is covered in particles, air can’t get through either, and your furnace needs air to operate properly. If it can’t operate properly, it will run too often or too long, and it might leave you feeling cold and tempted to crank up the thermometer. So clean or replace you air filter every few months (more often if you live someplace with dusty or dirty outdoor air). Do the same with your air conditioner’s filter in the summer.
2. Turn on your ceiling fans—yes, in the winter! Set it to the “winter” or “reverse” setting so the blades create a subtle updraft, which pushes the warm air that naturally rises to the ceiling back down into the room. The fan doesn’t actually warm up the room, but it makes the air feel warmer so you’ll be more comfortable. And that means you won’t reach for the thermostat to crank it up.
3. Open the blinds. If it’s sunny outside that natural warmth will radiate into the house through your windows, which means your heating system won’t have to work so hard to keep the house comfortable. Close them up when the sun goes down to keep the cold out.
4. Get out your caulk gun. A hole or a crack in a wall, window or door sends your cozy, conditioned air right outside—and invites cold outdoor air indoors. Plug them with caulk or weather-stripping. A tip: Hold a lighted candle or stick of incense near a window or door and notice if it sways. If it does, you’ve got a draft that needs sealing.
5. Turn your thermostat down at bedtime. If you set it back 10 degrees for eight hours at a time and do it every night (and reverse it in the summer), you can slash around 10 percent you’re your heating and cooling bills, the Department of Energy estimates. A tip: If you have a programmable thermostat, set it to do this consistently so you won’t forget.
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