Grow your summer savings

One of the best things about sum­mer is the abun­dance of fresh, home­grown food. It’s remark­able how just a few seeds and some water can turn into a boun­ty. Sim­i­lar­ly, with just a few sim­ple actions, you can save ener­gy and reap the finan­cial rewards. One par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive tool for ener­gy-sav­ing is a smart ther­mo­stat. With a smart ther­mo­stat, you can help your co-op fight ris­ing expens­es and do your part in keep­ing pow­er costs low for every­one.

Sum­mer months bring some of the high­est ener­gy bills of the year. Cool­ing your home accounts for a large por­tion of your month­ly ener­gy use. The hot­ter it gets, the hard­er your air con­di­tion­er works to main­tain a com­fort­able tem­per­a­ture. A smart ther­mo­stat can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence by learn­ing a household’s sched­ule and adjust­ing tem­per­a­tures accord­ing­ly, ensur­ing that the cool­ing sys­tem doesn’t have to work as hard to com­bat out­side tem­per­a­tures. It can be pro­grammed to raise the tem­per­a­ture when no one is home and cool down before any­one returns, max­i­miz­ing sav­ings with­out sac­ri­fic­ing com­fort.

Plus, your co-op will reward you! As par­tic­i­pants in York Electric’s Smart Ther­mo­stat Pro­gram, mem­bers are cred­it­ed with $100 the 1st year and $50 the 2nd year, and each year going for­ward, when they allow YEC to adjust their ther­mo­stat dur­ing at least 60% of local con­trol events at peak times in the year.

Those sav­ings can add up fast! Mem­bers can sign up for this pro­gram by pur­chas­ing an ecobee smart ther­mo­stat at a dis­count­ed rate from York Elec­tric, or by bring­ing their own qual­i­fy­ing smart ther­mo­stat and reg­is­ter­ing it with the co-op.

Join YEC in fight­ing the sum­mer heat and keep­ing month­ly bills down this sea­son. Learn more about how you can con­trol your pow­er bill and sign up for our Smart Ther­mo­stat Pro­gram online.

Five Ways to Save this Sum­mer

When sum­mer tem­per­a­tures rise, so do our ener­gy bills. Here are a few ways you can reduce ener­gy use and grow your sum­mer sav­ings.

1. Raise your ther­mo­stat. The small­er the dif­fer­ence between the indoor and out­door temp, the more you’ll save.
2. Install win­dow cov­er­ings like blinds or light-block­ing cur­tains to pre­vent indoor heat gain dur­ing the day.
3. Seal leaks with caulk and weath­er­strip­ping around win­dows and exte­ri­or doors. Air leaks force your air con­di­tion­er to work hard­er and run longer than nec­es­sary.
4. Run ceil­ing fans for addi­tion­al cool­ing but turn them off when you leave the room.
5. Low­er your water heater ther­mo­stat to 120 degrees to reduce stand­by heat loss.