Youth Tour

Energy Efficiency Campaign - 2012
We have cooperatively developed an "energy efficiency toolkit" to help our members use energy wisely!

Think You Need an Energy Private Investigator?

There are countless resources offering advice about turning off lights and adjusting the temperature on your water heater. But it’s not always easy to know which actions will give you the greatest savings for your efforts. You don’t need a magic ball or a private investigator to figure out how to get the best value for your energy dollar. Hawkeye REC is happy to keep up on the research for you and help you sort out what options are best for your home and family.
As a member owner of your local electric cooperative, you deserve reliable information about which home changes will return the greatest savings. We want to help put the tools in your hands to make the best decisions for your household

Let’s consider the options for energy saving actions in three value categories: enormous impact, significant impact and lesser impact.
Enormous Impact:
Homeowners generally save the most energy with projects that seal their homes’ ‘thermal envelopes’. These projects include weather stripping, caulking, replacing damaged seals on doors and windows, attic insulation, outlet insulation and high efficiency heating and cooling systems. Key to this whole process, though, is to ensure that you seal your home’s air leaks first, so money invested in insulation and heating will not be wasted. Contact the energy experts at Hawkeye REC at 563-547-3801 for free assistance identifying which options you will benefit most from in your home.
Significant Impact:
After your home heating and cooling efforts are secured by sealing air leaks and insulating, you have addressed the greatest home energy investment. In the next tier of opportunities to conserve energy and costs, you will want to consider your home appliances and lighting. These are the next highest energy users in an average American home.
Did you know lighting still makes up an average of 14-20% of the monthly electricity use? A significant savings can be achieved by simply switching out any remaining traditional incandescent light bulbs for CFLs or LEDs, which provide equivalent brightness for a fraction of the energy use. In fact, CFLs are up to 75% more efficient than traditional light bulbs and typically last ten times longer. Refer to the number of lumens on the packaging to ensure the new lights replace brightness equivalent to what you are used to.
The best ways to save energy with your home appliances is to replace them with high efficiency models carrying the blue ENERGY STAR certification, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s indicator that appliances meet or exceed specific efficiency criteria. You will also want to compare the yellow EnergyGuide labels on the appliances as you are shopping. These guides created by the Federal Trade Commission show consumer protection information on expected annual cost to operate each appliance. Amazingly, you can save approximately $150 annually replacing a 1980s refrigerator with a current ENERGY STAR model.
Lesser Impact:
In this final category of energy saving opportunities are your smaller contributing factors that are often lumped together in an ‘other’ category. Perhaps you have already taken the previously noted savings measures and you still want to do more. Some of the actions you may take to capture incremental savings include:

Replacing furnace and air conditioner filters regularly,
Closing curtains to keep out the heat of the summer sun and to let in the sun’s heat in winter,
Using power strips on electronics that can be safely turned off to prevent unnecessary spending on ‘phantom’ power,
Reducing your water heater temperature to 120°F to save energy and avoid scalding,
Using the cold water wash cycle for your laundry when possible,
Participating in our Load Management Conservation Program.

Want to learn more?
We have 3 brochures available to download -

Brochure 1 - "Energy Efficiency & Conservation Toolkit"
Brochure 2 - "Energy Efficiency Lifestyles"
Brochure 3 - "Use Energy Wisely"