By making just a few alterations to your home, you can significantly change your energy expenses.  A programmable thermostat is one such alteration that can help with your bottom line. IDT Energy wants you to save on your energy bill.  A programmable thermostat can make a difference.

A programmable thermostat offers a number of pre-programmed settings that regulate the home temperature both during the heat I the summer and the cold in the winter.  You set the thermostat to create the optimal amount of savings without sacrificing your comfort.  Today’s average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills.  Half of this, approximately, is due to heating and cooling costs. With a pre-programmed thermostat, homeowners can save each month without even noticing the difference in their own comfort.

This is one of the many energy tips that IDT Energy and others offer to help you to reduce your energy bills this winter!

One great way to save money this year is to lower your water heating costs.  IDT Energy wants customers to benefit from energy savings.  For each 10 degrees that you reduce the water temperature,  you can have savings of between 3-5% in energy costs.

Many people think that their water heater thermostat needs to be set to 140 degree Fahrenheit.  This temperature actually poses a potential safety issue, since water at this temperature can be scalding.  When you reduce your water temperature to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you will save money without even noticing the difference in the water temperature.  Now, if you have a dishwasher with a booster heater, you may need the water temperature to remain within the 130 degree Fahrenheit range for the best cleaning.

While we all want to be safe in the house, we don’t always know how to be.  This is particularly true when dealing with electricity and energy.  IDT Energy wants to make sure that you, and all children in the house, know how to keep yourselves safe.  Use this checklist to learn about energy safety and to check on your safety in the home.

First of all, there should always be a multipurpose fire extinguisher in the house.  Electric appliances that can get hot should always be kept away from things that might burn.  When leaving the home, small appliances should always be turned off, and unplugged when possible.

If small children live in the home, safety caps should be used and inserted into the outlets so that children can’t stick their fingers or objects into these outlets.  Finally, all extension cords, lights and appliances that are used outdoors should have labels on them that indicate that they are for outdoor use.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the White House has earmarked more than $80 billion for clean energy investments.  These investments include everything from making a smarter grid to move renewable energy from rural places to cities, to low-income home weatherization projects.

In addition, it includes $4.5 billion for federal building green initiatives and to cut the energy bill.  It also includes $600 million in green job training programs.  Another interesting initiative is the $2 billion that has been put aside in competitive grants to help companies to develop the next generation of batteries that will store energy better.

IDT Energy, and other energy service companies, offer a number of ways to heat the home.  More than 50% of people use natural gas for this process.  The process of heating and cooling the home actually uses more energy and drains more of your electric bill than does any other system in the home.  In general, 43% of the utility bill is from heating and cooling.  In addition, heating and cooling systems add to global climate change, with 150 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year in the United States.
With all of this said, there are sage ways to save on your energy bill and to help the environment at the same time.  Here, IDT Energy explores a number of important tips to help you to save on your bottom line.

1. Set the thermostat as low as you can handle it in the winter and as high as possible in the summer.  Purchase a programmable thermostat as well so that you’ll only be using energy at key times throughout the day.

2. Clean filters on furnaces once a month and clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters and radiators as necessary.

3. Turn off exhaust fans in the kitchen, bath and other areas within 20 minutes after you’ve finished cooking or bathing.  If you need to replace exhaust fans, use high-efficiency, low-noise models.

4. Pay attention to your drapes and shades (or install some if you don’t already have them).  In the winter, keep drapes and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day for more sunlight and closed at night to reduce a chill from cold windows.  During the summer months, keep the windows closed during the day to prevent extra heat from the sun.

One interesting renewable energy source that seems to be catching on across America is hydropower.  Hydropower is the energy we make from moving water, and it’s a great source of renewable energy.  Hydropower consumption in the U.S. increased 4% for the first eight months of 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In both Washington and Oregon, which are the highest hydropower-producing states, consumption actually decreased just a bit.  Interestingly, Alabama recorded the biggest increase by 54.6%.  Kentucky came in second, with an increase of 52.1.%.

Hydropower is one of the many interesting and useful forms of renewable energy sources that IDT Energy supports as part of its “Buying Green” program.

It’s important to understand what Green Electricity is, and how it can help you to save the environment.  Green Electricity is really two different items.  It can be electricity that comes from an environmentally friendly and renewable location such as wind, hydro, geothermal or solar electric.  It can also be an arrangement between you, the electricity user, and the supplier, such as IDT Energy, who delivers the clean electricity to you.

Some people question if using Green Electricity really makes a difference.  The answer is that it certainly does.  When you sign up with a green supplier, you are telling that supplier that you want more green electricity in your package of electrical consumption.  The more people sign up for Green Electricity, the more the supplier will need to source.  As the customer pool grows and the demand increases, the supplier finds more partnerships with wind farms and other sources.  This means that less non-green power needs to be generated to meet the overall demand.

Each person really can make a difference when they choose to use Green Electricity.

According to analysis of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, 70% of the labor needed to produce both wind and solar energy is from manufacturing of the components of the machines which harness the energy, such as producing wind turbines or solar panels.

Because of this fact there is a large potential for the development of these industries to require a large work force with many new jobs being created.
According to a report published as a joint project of the United Steelworkers and Sierra Club, wind power component manufacturers have the potential of creating about 18,500 new jobs in New York State, and solar power component manufacturers could create 14,600 new jobs.

If geothermal and biomass manufacturing components are added to the equation, the total number of jobs created to supply the renewable energy industry in New York could be as much as almost 50,000 new jobs.

This re-industrialization of New York State could be enough of a reason to invest in green energy, but in addition clean energy development provides increased national security and improved climate and environmental health.

For these reasons IDT Energy offers its customers the option of choosing “Buying Green” and supporting the development of renewable sources of energy in New York State.

“Buying Green” at IDT Energy is a choice all of its customers can easily make if they want to participate in the development of clean and renewable resources for electric production.
The green choice is surprisingly inexpensive, too. According to estimates of monthly electrical use of individuals at 250 kWh and families at about 750 kWh, IDT Energy charges about 1.5 to 2.0 cents more, per kWh above the cost of standard electricity. On average this comes out to only 7 dollars more per person per month, or about $20 for an entire household. Not a lot of money to receive the following benefits.

Buying Green means:

•    There will be increased use of renewable energy resources.
•    Cleaner and healthier air for everybody.
•    Less of a need to build and use nuclear power plants.
•    Reduced dependence on foreign oil supplies
•    Increased opportunities for employment as “green technologies” develop.

Opening up the power supply industry to competition through deregulation not only allows individual consumers to choose their energy providers, but they now can also choose whether to support more environmentally friendly sources for producing electricity.

IDT Energy has a ‘Buy Green’ option for its customers. Choosing this option means that a certain amount of the electricity a consumer receives is produced from sources which use our natural resources in a way that does no harm to the environment. These sources may include wind power, running water, solar power and organic matter, which are all renewable and are relatively clean compared to the more standard sources of electricity which often include the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

IDT Energy is proud to say that they have joined the State to help create a center for environmentally friendly technologies here in New York. Within 10 years New York hopes to obtain 25% of its power from green sources, and IDT is playing an important role in this development.