IDT Energy Savings

IDT Energy has recently made some interesting partnerships with the goal of saving customers even more money.  They have teamed with The NIA Group to create “Protection First” so that customers can save money while protecting their homes.

The NIA Group is offering reduced insurance rates for the home, card and other valuable possessions with additional savings if you own a hybrid car.  For your auto insurance, you can save, on average, $500 if you are two adults with one young driver and two cars; for homeowner insurance, they say you can save, on average, $500 for a framed home in the suburbs valued at $500,000 or more.

In addition, the partnership between IDT Energy and The NIA Group enables customers to receive discounted insurance for condominiums, jewelry, collectibles insurance, identity theft coverage, boat insurance, flood insurance and much more.

First of all, you should know that refrigeration is based on a simple principle: the evaporation of a liquid to keep things cold. You already know about this principle, you experience it every time you perspire to release extra heat from your body, or cooling off by getting wet.  When the water evaporates off your body, it uses energy by absorbing heat and cooling you off. The effect of putting alcohol on your skin is even better at cooling, because alcohol evaporates at an even lower temperature.

In a refrigerator the liquid that evaporates does so at an extremely low temperature, cold enough to create the icy cold conditions inside your fridge and freezer. If you should be foolish enough to put some of the refrigerator’s coolant on your skin, your skin will freeze as the refrigerant evaporates.

Your refrigerator is made up of five basic parts:

1.    Compressor

2.    Heat-exchanging pipes- coiled or serpentine, found outside the fridge

3.    Expansion valve

4.    Heat-exchanging pipers-coiled or serpentine, found inside the fridge

5.    Refrigerant- the liquid which evaporates inside the refrigerator to create the cold environment of the fridge.

Have you ever given much thought to how refrigerators work? Here is a brief discussion of how the most important appliance in your home has revolutionized the way we live.

Even though many things taste better cold, like drinks and other foods, the real purpose, and revolutionary effect of refrigeration is to keep foods from spoiling, especially sensitive foods like meat and dairy products. For example, milk would spoil in a matter of hours if left at room temperature, but at the normal temperature of a home fridge, milk can last a week or more. If milk is kept frozen it will last much longer. This is because there are bacteria in food that grow quickly at ordinary temperatures, and if left to themselves they will reproduce until the food is no longer edible. These same bacteria grow much, much less rapidly at extremely cold temperatures, like 40 degrees Fahrenheit (about 5 degrees Centigrade.) At zero degrees Centigrade (32 degrees F) the growth of bacteria is entirely checked.

Without refrigeration we would need other ways to preserve foods, like old fashioned ice boxes, or salting food which also inhibits bacterial growth.

You probably already know that a large percent of the total energy you use at home is in the kitchen and laundry room. Did you know that it was as much as one third of home energy usage? That is a big chunk of your budget. Therefore the choices we make in the kitchen and laundry can have a big effect on our energy bill.

Most of that energy is devoured by your refrigerator. So what are some ways to get our fridges to work at peak efficiency, using the least amount of electricity but giving the best results?

Start by setting the thermostat on the fridge to between 38 to 42 degrees Fahrenheit to allow your refrigerator to run about 25% more efficiently.
Another simple and obvious thing to do is to make sure the door of the refrigerator is always kept closed, except for just the few moments when you are removing food out of or putting things into the fridge. Some new refrigerators even come with an alarm that alerts you if the refrigerator door is open for more than just a few moments. If your refrigerator does not have such a device, you can buy one separately.

Understanding your energy usage, and particularly that of your electrical appliances is essential to properly manage your budget and home expenses, and it is also essential in order to become part of the international efforts in looking after our world.

When an appliance is labeled “X watts” this meant that this is the maximum measure of electricity the appliance uses. While some appliances will indeed use this volume of electricity constantly and consistently, refrigerators, for example, only use the maximum energy consumption when the compressor is running. When the fridge is quiet after having reached its goal temperature, it will simply maintain that temperature and it will then be using far less electricity.

IDT Energy, the New York ESCO, is not merely a supplier of energy, but it is concerned with the environment and your pocket. Therefore, IDT focuses on green energy and on consumer education.

In addition to purchasing office equipment labeled with the Energy Star, there are several concrete steps you can take to reduce your power consumption and save money.

Here are few ideas:

•    Turn off your machines when they are not in use. This simple suggestion can save large amounts of energy.

•    The AC adaptor from your computer can be plugged into a power strip that can be turned off when not in use. There is a transformer in the AC adaptor that continuously draws electricity, even when the computer is not plugged into the adaptor. You can also merely unplug the adaptor from the outlet when not in use.

•    New computers can be safely turned off without affecting the life of the computer. It is no longer true, as it was in the days of mainframe computers, that never turning over the computer extends the computers life. Nowadays you can safely turn off your computer, save energy, money and nothing will happen to your computer.

•    When you upgrade your computer, consider getting a laptop instead of a desktop. Laptops use much less energy than desktop computers.

IDT Energy wants its customers to save whenever and wherever they can, so why not explore new ways to save money in the office, too?

Working at home is becoming more and more popular. People who work from home are already saving money on transportation costs, and perhaps the cost of new clothes since you no longer need to dress for the office.  You might be able to also save on childcare costs, the cost of purchasing expensive lunches, and other types of expenses which are no longer needed when you are employed at home.

However you might need expensive equipment in order to do the job properly, such as computers, printers, faxes, etc, which are all energy consumers.
So how can you save money on your energy bill in your home office?

Start with the Energy Star. Office equipment labeled with the Energy Star can in some cases save you as much as 90% to run the product. The average savings on most office equipment is still impressive; as much as 50% can usually be saved with Energy Star labeled office equipment compared to ordinary equipment.

In addition to this respectable energy savings, these office devices also reduce air-conditioning loads, annoying background noise from fans and transformers and electromagnetic fields from computer monitors.

When creating a plan to reduce household expenses on energy, it is crucial to see where most of your energy dollars are going. According to the 2007 Buildings energy Data Book we see the hugest chunk of money spent on household energy goes to space heating, around 31%.

When planning  your household usage energy audit you should be sure to:

•    Check insulation in attic, basement walls and exterior walls, floors, ceilings and all those crawl spaces which can lose a lot of heat if not properly insulated.

•    Inspect in your walls, windows, ceilings, doors, lights fixtures, plumbing fixtures and even electrical outlets, for cracks and/or holes which can leak your expensive warm air out into the cold, cruel world.

•    Are your fireplace dampers open?

•    Look for ways to conserve energy use for lighting. Perhaps using occupancy sensors, dimmers and/or timers can help save electricity. Replacing incandescent lights with compact or standard fluorescent bulbs could save you a bundle.

In our last post IDT Energy discussed ways to get the heat into your house in a cost saving manner, such as exposing your home to daytime sunshine, lowering your thermostat and installing a programmable thermostat.

Here are some ideas on how to keep the heat you’ve paid so dearly for to stay inside where it belongs:

• When is the last time you checked the insulation in your attic? How about your ceilings, exterior walls, basement walls, crawl spaces and floors? Make sure the insulation is adequate for the climate that you live in. New York can have extremely harsh winters, and good insulation can make a huge difference in your heating costs.
• Check for air leaks around windows and doors, then use caulk and weather stripping to seal them.
• Be sure to replace the filters on your furnace regularly to keep the warm air flowing into your house efficiently.
• IDT Energy wishes you and your family a wonderful warm winter in New York.

Winter in New York is always wonderful. However it can be a challenge to stay warm and cozy without breaking the bank. IDT Energy has some helpful tips to maintain a comfortable and affordable New York winter.

When considering how to control heating costs, its best to take the broad view of the entire house:

• •    During the day the sun is in the south. By keeping the south facing curtains and drapes open, the sun will shine in and help keep your house warm. Don’t forget to close the drapes at night to keep out the cold chill that can come into the house through the glass.
• •    Consider turning down your thermostat a bit. Try to maintain comfort at a lower temperature.
• •    Even better than merely turning down your thermostat, install a programmable thermostat. This handy device can raise the temperature in your home when you are there; lower it when you’re not; and maintain another temperature when you are asleep, all completely automatically. You can actually reduce your heating bill by 10% by just lowering the temperature on your thermostat from 72 degrees down to 65 when you are sleeping or out of the house.