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!

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.

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.

In Rockland and Orange Counties, New York, IDT Energy is one of two providers of electricity which is generated by wind and water to consumers who are served by Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc.

The good news is that this green solution is actually coming down in price, making this alternative source for electricity production more attractive to consumers.

It is a sign that renewable energy is becoming a viable alternative to traditional forms of electricity production as business in this sector increases, while the costs goe down.

This is the first time that the green power alternative was actually cheaper than power produced by coal, natural gas, nuclear power or hydro plants.

Improving fuel cell function would be a great boon to the goal of oil self sufficiency and independence from foreign sources of oil which is of great interest to IDT Energy.

Not only do fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen (air) as their source of energy but they use fuel much more efficiently.

For instance, standard gas-driven engines are only 22 percent efficient. In other words 22% of the fuel used actually goes to powering the engine. The 78% which is left is lost to heat.

Diesel engines are a tad better, coming in at 27% efficient.  Hybrid electric powered cars are getting better at about 30-35%. Fuel cells can be expected to be about 55 per cent efficient.

Apollo Fuel Cell Rocket

Although fuel cells were first invented in 1839 and were used in the Gemini and Apollo missions of the NASA space program, we are still working on making fuel cells a realistic alternative to internal combustion engines.

A clear benefit of improving fuel cell function would be to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign countries for its energy needs. Consumption far exceeds production: in the year 2007 the U.S. produced 5.1 million barrels of oil each day but used 20.7 million barrels per day.

Since the source of the electricity which fuel cells produce is hydrogen and oxygen, which are available in the air, It is easy to see how fuel cells could greatly increase the U.S. independence from foreign oil suppliers.

In our continuing exploration of affordable, clean energy IDT Energy presents the fuel cell.

This remarkable method of converting chemical energy into electricity are similar to batteries but with a difference. A battery uses chemicals that are internal to the battery, whereas fuel cells use chemicals that are external the cell.

At the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are working on the development of fuel cells which use hydrogen and oxygen to get electricity and water. The source of the hydrogen and oxygen is air, and the waste product is more than biodegradable, since it is water.

The system which is being worked on now uses a membrane and catalysts usually made from platinum which turn air into electricity and water.

“Of course, environmentally we love fuel cells because hydrogen plus oxygen makes water,” says Rod Borup, program manager for the Laboratory’s fuel cell program in MPA-11, the Sensors and Electrochemical Devices Group.

The scientists at the lab are in the midst of improving the various components of the system. They are exploring different ways of reducing the cost of the catalyst, getting better materials for the membranes, and getting a better understanding of what lowers the efficiency of the fuel cells.