April 2024 EnergyWiseSM Tip: Light Switches

SWPPD will be closed Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th, in observance of Thanksgiving. Normal business hours will resume Monday, December 1st. If you need assistance during this time, please call (308)285-3295 to speak with an on-call representative.

Southwest Public Power District Rate Increase

Heating your home does not have to mean burning fuel. Electric systems are efficient, clean and increasingly practical. Heat pumps are the leading electric choice. They extract heat from outdoor air or from the ground and move it indoors. Because they transfer heat rather than generate it, they use far less energy than many older systems. Modern air-source models and ground-source or geothermal systems work well in a range of climates. Ductless mini-split systems heat individual rooms and avoid the energy loss that comes with ductwork. Radiant floor systems use thin mats under flooring to deliver gentle, even warmth. High-efficiency electric heaters are useful for zone heating in small spaces. Why consider electric heat? It removes indoor combustion and the risk of carbon monoxide. Maintenance is often simpler. When paired with clean electricity from your electric cooperative or with rooftop solar, electric heat can sharply lower your home’s carbon footprint. Before you switch, tighten insulation and seal air leaks so you do not heat the outdoors. Get an energy audit and a professional load calculation to size equipment correctly. Ask about incentives and rebates from your cooperative or state that can ease upfront costs. Check out hybrid systems, too. In some homes, a heat pump covers most of the year while a small backup system handles rare cold snaps. Electric heating is worth exploring if you want cleaner air, reliable comfort and long-term savings.

Winter weather can push your energy bills higher than you expect. Push back with a few smart devices that help you stay warm and cut electricity use. Many of them are easy to install and simple to use. Start with a programmable thermostat. These devices have all kinds of settings, but their most basic advantage is that they allow you to set your home’s temperature lower when you’re ready for bed or when you leave for work. Then you can schedule it to warm the house a bit before you wake up or get home from work. Some models can learn your routine and make adjustments automatically. Smart plugs are low cost and versatile. Plug lamps, humidifiers, space heaters and other electric devices into them. Then use an app on your phone to switch devices off when you do not need them. Timers and schedules stop devices from running unnecessarily and wasting electricity. An energy monitor shows which appliances draw the most power. Seeing those numbers helps you spot problems like an old freezer running in the basement or an inefficient water heater. Once you see the evidence of wasted electricity, you can unplug the appliance or replace it with one that’s energy efficient. Smart lighting paired with LED bulbs saves energy. You can sync your lights with an app on your phone to dim them or set schedules so lights turn off when you go to bed. You can also group lights by room so they all turn on when you use them and turn off when you leave the space. Even small changes can add up to energy savings, so start with one device and see if you notice a difference on your monthly bill.

By: NPPD Energy Efficiency Program Manager Cory Fuehrer In 2001, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published the results of the National Human Activity Pattern Survey. It revealed that, on average, Americans spend 87% of their time indoors and an additional 6% in enclosed vehicles. In 1800, 90% of Americans worked outside. 200 years later, less than 20% did. As more of our daily lives have been spent inside, the number of people with respiratory diseases, heart disease, certain types of cancer and/or other health problems has dramatically increased. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) as the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants. Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can help reduce the risk of indoor health concerns. While a great deal of energy can be used to purify indoor air, the EPA suggests three basic strategies to mitigate the problems while minimizing the impact on energy costs. Source Control Quite often, the most effective way to improve IAQ is to eliminate individual sources of pollution or to reduce their emissions. Some sources, like those that contain asbestos, can be sealed or enclosed. Others, like toxic and other byproducts from gas stoves or furnaces, can be adjusted or replaced to decrease the amount of emissions. Many activities such as cooking, painting, paint stripping, welding, soldering, or sanding can be taken outside or performed in a mechanically ventilated area. Smoking should never be done inside. Pets can be bathed to reduce their dander. Excess moisture in basements and other high humidity rooms can be managed with a dehumidifier, if necessary, to lower relative humidity to 50% or lower. In many cases, source control is also a more energy and cost-efficient approach to improving IAQ than increasing ventilation. Ventilation As long as the outside air is fairly pollutant-free, bringing fresh air into the home is an effective approach to lowering the concentrations of indoor air pollutants. However, ventilation often requires filtering, heating, cooling, dehumidifying or humidifying. Some homes, especially much older ones, are “leaky” and exchange plenty of indoor and outdoor air through gaps and cracks around foundations, windows siding and attics. But others, especially newer ones, tend to be sealed tightly and require additional ventilation. While opening a window and operating a ventilation fan is a simple way to bring in outside air, considerable energy use is necessary to make the air comfortable. For these homes, installing an energy recovery ventilator that replaces indoor stale air with fresh outdoor air while transferring heat into or out of the incoming air depending on the season is the most efficient and practical solution. Air cleaning Research shows that filtration can be an effective supplement to source control and ventilation. It turns out that 67% of U.S. homes already have a central heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. If the system’s blower fan is powerful enough, a filter can be installed to create a highly effective whole house air purifier. Filters are rated on a Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) scale that ranges from 1 to 20. The higher the number, the smaller the particles it can effectively filter. A MERV rating of at least 13 is necessary to capture 95% of dust, pollen and smoke particles, which can be as small as 0.3 microns in size. High-Efficiency Particulate Air or HEPA filters have a MERV rating of at least 17. However, not all HVAC blowers are powerful enough to overcome the increasing air resistance of the filter as the MERV rating increases. Always check with a certified HVAC professional before installing a filter with a higher MERV rating than your system currently uses. Another way to filter air in a single room or area is to use portable air cleaners, also known as air purifiers or air sanitizers. A standard room air cleaner, operating continuously, can use 250 to 500 kilowatt-hours a year in electricity. This is more than the energy used by some new refrigerators! Note that the energy efficiency of an air purifier is determined by its Clean Air Delivery Rate-to-Watt (CADR/Watt) ratio, where a higher number means more efficiency. Look for a rating above 1.9 for smaller units and a rating above 2.9 for units designed to provide 150 cubic feet or more of filtered air per minute. For more detailed and extensive information about IAQ, The EPA provides “The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality.” In addition to expanding on the importance of IAQ in your home, it offers additional ways to mitigate poor quality air and where to go for professional help. In partnership with Nebraska Public Power District, your local public power provider is happy to help you explore the most efficient way to keep the air in your home or business healthy and clean. Contact them or visit www.energywisenebraska.com for more details.

Looking to save energy and still stay comfortable at home this fall? A few small tech upgrades could make a big difference. · Smart plugs can help you control when appliances and lamps are on — even when you’re not home. Set schedules or turn devices off from your phone. · Smart thermostats learn your habits and adjust the temperature automatically, saving energy without sacrificing comfort. Some models also give you detailed reports on your energy use. · LED strip lights are a trendy way to light up kitchens, bathrooms and even outdoor areas. They use little electricity and last a long time. · Smart power strips stop electronics like TVs, computers and game consoles from drawing power when they’re turned off. · Motion-sensor lights work indoors and out. Try them in hallways and entryways to prevent leaving lights on by accident.  With daylight hours getting shorter and temperatures dropping, now’s a great time to explore smart tech that helps save money while keeping your home cozy.

As cold weather begins to set in, many people retreat to their garage to escape the chill. As do vehicles, so drivers hope to avoid scraping off ice and snow in the morning. If there’s any space remaining, ongoing projects are moved in with hopes of finishing them soon or carrying them over until spring. Closing up the doors and windows, many start using supplemental heat to make their garage, shop or shed even more hospitable. Propane tanks are filled. Pilot lights are ignited. Space heaters are plugged in. Then, without much thought, thermostats are turned up to drive away the chill. Unless folks remember how to manage this extra use of energy, they may be shocked when their first winter utility bills arrive or the fuel tank out back is empty before expected. Usually the garage, shop or shed is the least energy efficient space at a residence. A typical two-car garage measures 480 square feet, or about 20 percent of the size of the average U.S. home. It is often the least insulated and uses the least efficient heating systems. Yet, some are taken back in the middle of winter when keeping these areas at 50°F or higher increases their heating costs by 50% or more. Before taking up refuge in your garage this winter and cranking up the heat, consider a few of the following opportunities to keep your energy use from literally going through the roof. Insulate the walls While most people insulate their garage attics before heating them, many older homes (and even some newer ones) were not built with insulation in the walls of the garage. While most have outside siding, sheathing and a layer of particle board to keep elements out, these materials do little to retain heat. Insulating can be as easy as tacking fiberglass insulation between exposed joists. If your garage walls are finished, insulation can be blown in through a small hole in the drywall or paneling. Caulk between the walls and the concrete floor Most garages were not built using compressible foam between the lower framing and concrete floor. Over time, the framing can swell, shrink and move, leaving gaps which will allow air from the outside to leak in. You can either use a foam sealant or a latex/silicone-based caulk to seal this often-overlooked area.  Seal the door between the house and garage If your garage is attached to the house, the door leading into the home is often a major source of cold air leaking into the conditioned area. If your garage is detached, the passenger door may be letting much of your garage heat escape. Check to ensure weather-stripping is installed around the entire door frame, and that it’s intact, pliable and provides a snug seal. Also, ensure your threshold and door sweep are sealing at the bottom. Insulate the garage door Even if your garage has properly-insulated walls, you may have uninsulated garage door(s). This negates much of the benefit from insulated walls. A new, insulated door will cost several hundreds of dollars or more, but will provide a clean appearance. A lower cost solution is to purchase foam board insulation and install it on the inside panels of your existing doors. Remember, you must cut the foam board to a size a little smaller than your garage door’s panels so the insulation doesn’t smash together as the door rolls up and down. Switch to LED lighting Compared to traditional, incandescent lights, LEDs use only 10 percent of the electricity to produce identical illumination levels. Compared to fluorescent lighting, LEDs use 40 to 60 percent less energy for the same amount of light. More importantly, fluorescent lights produce less and less light as the temperature drops. Many fluorescent lights will not even operate below 10°F. In contrast, LEDs slightly increase their light output the colder it becomes. Replace older appliances If you have an older model refrigerator or freezer in your garage, it may cost more money for you to operate it over time than it would to invest into a new unit. Although the energy savings are smaller in the winter, consider how hot your garage becomes in the summer. If there is very little in the garage refrigerator or freezer, try moving items to an indoor refrigerator or freezer. Then, unplug the garage unit to save electricity. For additional ideas on how you can reduce the cost of heating your garage this winter, contact your local electric utility or visit www.energywisenebraska.com. You may even find you are eligible for EnergyWiseSM incentives for helping with the cost of other energy-saving home improvements.

It’s tempting to flip on the electric heat during the first chilly evening of autumn. If you can’t resist, keep the temperature low. The perfect thermostat setting in fall can keep you comfortable and lower your energy bills. Here’s a simple guide for September and October: Daytime: Set your thermostat between 68°F and 70°F for a cozy, energy-efficient home during the day. Nighttime: Lower the temperature to 60°F or 65°F while you sleep to save on heating costs without sacrificing comfort. When away: Set your thermostat to about 60°F if you’re out for several hours to avoid wasting energy heating an empty house. Use programmable thermostats: Automate these temperature changes to avoid manual adjustments and optimize savings. These ranges balance comfort with efficiency as outdoor temperatures cool. Adjust based on personal comfort and home insulation and consider layering clothes indoors for added warmth.

As summer fades and fall arrives, you may notice changes in your electric bill. Here’s what to expect and how to prepare: Cooling drops, heating rises: Your air conditioning use will decrease, but heating needs may start increasing, especially in late fall. Shorter daylight means more lighting: With fewer daylight hours, you’ll likely use indoor lights earlier in the evening. Switching to LED bulbs can help reduce the impact. Holiday decorating ups energy use: Halloween and early holiday lights can add to your electricity consumption. Using timers helps control costs. Appliance use shifts: You might start using appliances like ovens, space heaters or humidifiers more frequently.  Understanding these changes could help you plan and manage your energy use better.