For Chatham-Kent residents and small business owners who want to cut their energy consumption and see how much power their appliances use, Entegrus has a program for you.
Peaksaver Plus can help you cut consumption and gauge how much juice that old beer fridge in the basement is really using.
Erin Bourdeau, conservation program manager with Entegrus Powerlines, said Peaksaver Plus can save everyone money.
“The point of the program is for somebody to participate, contributing to help the province manage energy use,” she said. “And as a side part, they get to view their energy use.”
The province wide program launched last year, but is only hitting high gear now, Bourdeau said. It’s a tweak to a 2010 provincial initiative.
Entegrus will provide participants with up to $400 in equipment to let them see their real-time energy consumption.
It will also turn off your air conditioning and electric hot-water heaters during high-power usage periods, Bourdeau said. But participants can override the controls, she added.
“The way the setup works right now, electric heat is not an option to override, just the air conditioning and the electric water heater,” she explained. “If someone’s having a problem or doesn’t want to participate, they have the ability to override it as the homeowner.”
Bourdeau, who is a Peaksaver Plus user, said the program can really open a resident’s eyes when it comes to energy consumption.
“When I got the in-home display installed in my house, just seeing how much turning on a couple of lights can use and seeing the cost, it makes you think,” she said. “We get customers who say, ‘I have no idea that my freezer downstairs was really costing me.’”
Bourdeau said the real-time feedback allows people to see the individual costs of appliances, or even leaving the lights on in an empty room.
The energy display unit shows power consumption in kilowatts, as well as dollars and cents.
“By delivering the Peaksaver Plus program to our residential and small business customers, we’re providing them with an effective way to manage their electricity use and costs,” Jim Hogan, CEO of Entegrus, said in a release. “We encourage our customers to take advantage of this program and the entire suite of saveONenergy conservation programs so they can get maximum benefit from every energy dollar spent.”
There are more than 1,000 customers enrolled in the program across the Entegrus service territory.
Entegrus customers interested in participating in the Peaksaver Plus program should contact 1-888-985-3465, or www.entegrus.com/peaksaver.
I applied and 2 times they never showed up for the appointment.