350 kWhrs Saved!

SEEDS 350 kWh SAVED! project is conserving and creating energyin NEPA! Here is the explanation we’ve been passing around to let people know all about it. For a list of the past newsletters participants have received, click here.

You are invited to participate in the SEEDS “350 kWh Saved!” Project.

SEEDS (Sustainable Energy Education & Development Support) is looking for at least 350 families in Northeast Pa. to reduce their electric bills by at least 350 kilowatt hours (kWh). So far, 50 families have signed up and four families have achieved savings of over 350 kWhrs.

What you get out of it: You save money on your electric bill, and when you save your first 350 kWh, you will receive a discount card for incentives from 13 area businesses, and every time you save 350 kWh, your name will go into a hat for a door prize drawing in Spring of 2011. Biggest prize will be a $5,000. value solar thermal system. There is the added bonus that you will cut air pollution.

SEEDS has set up a process to make it easy for you:

Sign up for the program

* Send a message to seedsgroup@gmail.com.
* Put “350 Signup” in the subject line.
* In the body, put your name, address and email. If you want us to use an email other than the one you are sending it from, please give us that address.
* We will enroll you in the program and send you one e-mail a month with updates and tips on saving electricity. (Your contact info will not be shared with anyone else.)

Check your electric bill

* Compare your current electric bill with the one from the same month in 2009. See if you have cut your electricity use. You can do this on-line or on your paper bill.

Online

o Go to http://www.pplelectric.com/ and log in. If you haven’t signed up for an online account yet, go to myPPL on the top menu. You will need your PPL account number when you sign up the first time.
o Scroll down to the bottom 2/3 of the page and click on Bill History.
o This new page will give you a 13 month history of your kWh usage.
o Subtract the first number from the last to get the number of kWhs you have saved.

Monthly Bill: If you do not want to use the internet, use your monthly electric bill.

o Look at the average kWh use to the right of the bar graph on the first page of the bill.
o Subtract the 2010 number for this month from the 2009 number for this month
o Multiply this number by the number of days in the box above it—it will be between 28 and 32.
o This will give you the number of kWhrs saved this month.

Not a PPL customer?

For those of you in northeast Pa who do not have PPL as your electric billing company, tell us how you can show your electric savings. (Your billing company is the one that provides usage information, even if you have elected to buy your energy from an alternative source.)

Prove your savings: Once you have saved 500 kWhrs—this might take 2 or 3 months–bring the bar graph part of your bills to:

o SEEDS booth at Audubon Arts and Crafts Festival, July 17 & 18 10 – 5 each day
o SEEDS booth at Sidewalk Sales in Honesdale, July 22, 23, 24.
o Wayne County Fair (in the Red Barn with all the vegetable displays)

Questions? Call Michele at 224-0052 or e-mail SEEDS at seedsgroup@gmail.com.