Are your electric baseboard heaters turned off for the summer?
It’s summer, but your electric baseboard heaters may still be consuming energy and running up your power bill.
Here’s why. First, in spite of our best intentions, thermostats are sometimes not turned down. We forget, especially in rooms we don’t often use, or they get turned up on a cool day and aren’t set back down later.
Secondly, thermostats often lose their accuracy – so even when you turn them down, they may still click the heat on during cooler periods. For example, a thermostat that’s off by 5 degrees may kick in when it’s 15 degrees, even if you have it set down to 10 degrees. That’s heat you don’t need and money you can save.
There’s a simple way to be sure your heat is not coming on behind your back this summer: go to your power panel and turn off the breaker for your heaters. Then just reset it in the fall when you want the heat. Simple savings!
In the news
Green power is taking root in China with massive investments in wind (6 huge projects are under construction, each with the output of 16 coal fired power plants). Britain has the potential to be a world leader in offshore wind and wave power in just over a decade. (It’s amazing how much change is possible in just ten years.)
In the meantime, lamentably, Canada placed dead last in the World Wildlife Fund’s rating of G8 nations, “not even close” to meeting its Kyoto targets.