Take steps now to stave off increases in home heating costs and your utility bills, panelists emphasized during CUB’s most recent webinar for residential utility customers.
Take steps now to stave off increases in home heating costs and your utility bills, panelists emphasized during CUB’s most recent webinar for residential utility customers.
The Sept. 22 webinar featured insights from Chad Laibly from Wisconsin Focus on Energy, and Cristina Carvajal from Wisconsin EcoLatinos, as well as Tom Content from CUB.
If you missed the webinar, you can download the full presentation slides here, and find resources and links here. You can see a replay of the webinar, Action Steps You Can Take to Use Less Energy at Home, on CUB’s YouTube channel, or below.
Content shared information about pending increases linked to utility rate cases as well as a newly released outlook for home heating costs this coming winter.
CUB is working to focus on the costs that can be controlled by the state Public Service Commission, with special attention on double-digit and exorbitant utility profits that are well above the national average.
Laibly, an expert on insulation and air sealing with the Focus on Energy program, suggested consumers consider a blanket for their water heater, insulation for water heater lines, draft blockers, chimney pillows as well as a new product to Wisconsin, window inserts.
Carvajal, founder of Wisconsin EcoLatinos, discussed the power of upgrading to more energy-efficient appliances such as water heaters or furnaces. But simple maintenance steps can keep refrigerators, dryers and other home appliances working efficiently and that, too, will save on energy use. Steps include cleaning refrigerator coils and dryer vents, replacing furnace air filters regularly and getting the furnace tuned up before winter.
She recommended a personalized online assessment available through the federal Energy Star program, the Energy Star Home Advisor.
Content recommended utility customers check with their local utility to see if they could save by switching from a regular energy rate to a time of use rate. These rates provide customers with discounts for electricity consumed at night and on the weekend, and yield savings for people who shift their intensive energy-using activities, such as washing dishes and clothes or charging an electric vehicle, to the discounted hours.
Research has shown many customers would see lower overall electricity bills under time-of-use rates.
CUB has compiled resources and links from the webinar here.
CUB appreciates the support from promotional partners Focus on Energy, Wisconsin EcoLatinos, Wisconsin Energy Institute, Renew Wisconsin, Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum, Midwest Renewable Energy Association and Vernon County Energy District.
CUB also has small business webinars planned for this month as part of Energy Awareness Month, starting this Thursday. Maria Redmond from the Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy, and Becky Cooper from Bounce Milwaukee will join Tom Content from CUB and Scott Coenen from the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum. The topic: The Clean Energy Transition: What Does It Mean for My Small Business. Register here.
Find out more by checking CUB’s events calendar and our Energy Awareness Month event roundup.
