Greening Austin Daily

Austin Energy Power Saver Volunteers

18th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Austin Energy Power Savers is a cool program a coworker was telling me she had signed up for.  According to AE’s website,when you sign up to be a Power Saver Volunteer, Austin Energy will contact you up to ten times during the summer(you pick the method of contact –  telephone, email or text message). When they contact you, they will ask you to take four actions to use less electricity between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm:

• Switch off unnecessary lights
• Delay washing and drying clothes, and using your dishwasher
• Cook dinner in your microwave oven, rather than with an electric range
• Turn up the AC thermostat by two to three degrees

It’s completely voluntary, so there’s no penalty for signing up and then running your dishwasher when they ask you not to, it’s just a nice way to try and help decrease electricity usage.  The website also explains that by joining the program and helping to reduce peak demand, Power Saver Volunteers are helping to put off building new power generation plants  (which would make be bad environmentally, but also would make rates go up).

If you do sign up, you get a free home weatherization kit, including:

• Weather stripping
• Outlet sealers
• Two compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs)
• An energy saver nightlight

Check out the link above to sign up.

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