Lots of people talk about making energy-efficient improvements in this time of going green and sustainability, but the Ostermann family in Norway has done something more than talk.
Using publicly-available energy efficiency programs, the family reduced their utility bills by 42 percent as part of a national energy challenge called
Anybody Can Serve, So Let's Conserve. The contest was held by the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners, and the prize was that the family will get their utility bills paid for the three-month period during which the contest was held; April to June this year.
Orjiakor Isiogu is the chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission, and announced the family's win among 35 other U.S. families, saying it's important to note the Ostermanns did what they did with local resources and programs.
"With nothing more than a simple energy efficiency kit, the entire Ostermann family took measures that dramatically reduced their energy bills," says Isiogu. "The same measures they took are available to all of us."
He says some of those measures are available through Efficiency United, a state-administrated program that offers rebates, free energy audits, incentives, appliance recycling, assistance to low-income households, and other services.
Local energy efficiency improvements have other benefits too; while, for example, weatherization on a home means lower utility bills for the owner, the process also benefits contractors, workers and local materials suppliers. And best of all, carbon impact is reduced when less energy is used.
Among the utility providers who work with Efficiency United are U.P. providers Cloverland Electric Cooperative, Upper Peninsula Power Company, WE Energies, and SEMCO.
More details are online at the MPSC's energy efficiency
website, or at the Efficiency United
website.Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Orjiakor Isiogu, Michigan Public Service Commission
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