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March 1, 2008
Communicating Energy Efficiency and Wise Energy Use, Public Power Magazine, March-April 2008
| For More Information |
Tim Blodgett
Hometown Connections
303-526-4515
tblodgett@hometownconnections.com
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Version 5.0 of Energy Depot Breaks New Ground
The eleven members of the Alabama Municipal Electric Authority (AMEA) are facing challenges common to many electric utilities across the U.S. Rising fuel costs, Clean Air Act mandates, triple-digit temperatures in the summer, and a drought predicted to last through 2008 are driving up energy costs for customers. In response, AMEA is running a comprehensive, multi-media communications program aimed at helping AMEA customers become wise energy users. At the forefront of AMEA’s efforts is providing the new Version 5.0 of the Energy Depot for Homes online service for all AMEA members and the 350,000 households they serve.
AMEA serves as an official sales representative of Hometown Connections. Through Hometown Connections, members of AMEA—along with the full membership of the American Public Power Association—are giving customers the information they need to reduce energy usage and costs by adding a set of Internet energy information tools from Enercom called Energy Depot® to their utility websites. Enercom’s suite of online resources includes Energy Depot for Homes, Energy Depot for Business, and Water Depot for Homes. These applications feature web-based energy audits, easy-to-read graphs, recommendations on energy savings, and a comprehensive energy library with tips and fact sheets for residential and commercial customers. Enercom released version 5.0 of Energy Depot for homes in late 2007, and AMEA is rolling out the service for its full membership in the first quarter of 2008.
Energy Depot for Homes offers a complete do-it-yourself home energy audit on the Internet. Customers may use the software to quickly estimate the annual energy use and cost of home energy systems and appliances. Customers receive a personalized energy profile report with an estimate of their energy costs for each home energy system and appliance. Then customers obtain customized, specific advice on how to reduce their energy expenditures.
The new features of Energy Depot for Homes 5.0 include:
--New webpage graphic design
--Ability to run and save multiple home energy audits (Full or EZ Audits)
--Option to run an energy audit without entering any billing history data
--EZ-resume feature for completing previously started audits
--Energy profile summary report allows users to sort audit recommendations by various criteria and track and manage their implementation
--Simple payback calculators for all recommendations
--New graphing package for audit report
--Updated efficiencies, equipment/system age ranges and expanded energy tips
--Automatic energy costs updates for Energy Library fact sheets when default energy costs are changed.
“The Energy Library in Energy Depot for Homes 5.0 is the most comprehensive online resource I’ve ever seen,” said Lisa Miller, Director of Communications, AMEA. “I am very impressed by the diversity of topics covered. Customers can point-and-click their way to facts, illustrations, and advice on everything from air conditioning and home heating to lighting, appliances, and water heaters. Furthermore, I highly value the Energy Advisor feature, through which customers may send an e-mail with a specific question to an employee of their local utility. We think it’s very important for a customer to have the opportunity to interact with a ‘live’ person on staff to answer their energy questions.”
AMEA is working with Enercom to upgrade its Energy Depot site to the 5.0 release. Previously, AMEA offered Energy Depot as a “single site,” under the AMEA name/brand, excluding variables for the member utilities. The new "master site" is being set up to include data input from each member utility, including local electric and gas costs, utility name/logo, and a link back to the utility’s home page and a local contact person.
AMEA will work with its members to launch a comprehensive public relations campaign to familiarize homeowners with the Energy Depot service. Each AMEA member will receive and promote a slightly different URL to use as the link to Energy Depot from their utility website. When a customer clicks on the Energy Depot link, the software will recognize the person as a customer of that utility and the user will enter the site configured for their utility. Along with providing AMEA with their utility logo, members are submitting average local costs for electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and propane so Energy Depot can provide customers with a report on overall home energy use—regardless of what energy sources are used.
AMEA’s new 5.0 Energy Depot site also includes the Energy Comparison Tool which is a totally new customer resource. The Energy Comparison Tool allows customers faced with replacing their home heating and cooling system, or water heater, to quickly compare their existing home system with a range of new systems. They can also compare two different new systems to each other. Customers can choose between a variety of energy sources, equipment types, and efficiencies. Heating and cooling equipment choices include air-source and geothermal heat pumps, furnaces, dual-fuel systems, and electric air conditioning. Customers receive an estimate of annual energy consumption and cost for each system and, when appropriate, the simple payback period for buying more efficient systems.
In addition to AMEA, ElectriCities of North Carolina, American Municipal Power-Ohio, the Florida Municipal Power Agency and the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative are offering Energy Depot for Homes to their member utilities.
All individual utilities that are using Energy Depot through Enercom’s partnership with Hometown Connections automatically receive the upgrade to Version 5.0 for Homes free of charge. Enercom offers webcast demonstrations of the software to familiarize utility staff with its new features.
Visit these web sites for more information.
• Enercom web site
• Energy Depot Demonstrations
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