October Is Energy Awareness Month

October 1, 2007

In honor of Energy Awareness Month, the nation’s electric companies are encouraging everyone to think about how they can take charge of their electricity use. With houses getting bigger and bigger, and more and more appliances and electronic gear being plugged in, the nation is using more electricity than ever. 

Using electricity more efficiently can help you get more value from every dollar you spend on electricity. It can help to protect the environment as well.  Fortunately, electric companies are offering a wide variety of energy-saving programs and services.

Through their Web sites, public service announcements, and other outreach efforts, electric companies are offering hands-on advice and practical tips for customers who want to be smart energy users. Between 1989 and last year, these kinds of programs helped electric utility customers save almost 800 billion kilowatthours of electricity—enough to power almost 74 million average-size U.S. homes for one year. 

Learn more about the electric power industry’s energy saving programs.

The federal government is another resource for saving energy. The U.S. Department of Energy has a wide variety of information on using energy more wisely. The government also is offering tax credits for buying efficient appliances and for making homes and businesses more energy-efficient.  More information is available at www.energytaxincentives.org. Your state also may have energy saving rebates and other incentives.  Please visit http://www.dsireusa.org/summarytables/FinEE.cfm?&CurrentPageID=7&EE=1&RE=1 for more information.

Finally, by partnering together, we can do even more. Be a part of a growing national effort to lower energy use by changing out one of your regular light bulbs for a compact fluorescent bulb. These have earned the government's ENERGY STAR® label for excellence in energy efficiency. Every ENERGY STAR® qualified light bulb uses about two-thirds less energy than a standard bulb, lasts up to 10 times longer and can save about $30 or more in energy costs. Take the  ENERGY STAR Change a Light Pledge today.

To learn more about how to save energy all year long and also what steps electric companies across the country are taking now to plan for our electric future, please visit www.getenergyactive.org.

© 2008 Edison Electric Institute