Turn it down when you're not around
Dec. 15 is your last chance to get a programmable home thermostat for as little as $10 when you step up to take the Minnesota Energy Challenge (MEC).
Last summer, the Longfellow and Seward neighborhoods received a joint grant to help promote energy conservation through the MEC and other strategies, including offering the energy-saving thermostats and the distribution of fluorescent light bulbs — one of which comes free with the purchase of a thermostat.
The computerized, programmable thermostats save energy — and therefore money — by regulating your home heating for different times of day and night. It’s a trick some have long practiced — turn down the heat when you’re away at work, or snug in your bed at night — but with this thermostat, it’s done automatically.
By mid-November, Welna Hardware II, 2201 E Franklin Ave., had sold only 25 of the 60 available products, which range from $34.99–$99.99. Sign a pledge to take the MEC — more on that later — and you’ll receive a $25 rebate on the model you purchase. Welna has partnered with the Longfellow Community Council (LCC), Riverview Theater and the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs on the grant project.
Those models — from three different manufacturers: Honeywell, Ace and Lux — offer a variety of options, from the “5-2” thermostat, which allows two separate settings for the weekdays and weekend, to the seven-day model, which you can set for each individual day. Each model allows for up to four periods per day; you can wake up at 6 a.m. to a heating-up house, then give your furnace a rest when you leave for work, then warm up for the evening again before hitting the hay.
While the Lux Smart Temp, $35.99, advertises a 33 percent drop in energy costs, an MEC bookmark distributed by the city of Minneapolis notes a $25 savings each year, but that amount is proportionate to the rising cost of energy and, ultimately, up to you, depending on how low you go.
The other relevant measure of the product — and the MEC as a whole — is the pounds of CO2 emissions prevented. The city advertises 270 pounds per year saved, just by installing the thermostat in your home. Compare that to the nearly 9,500 tons of CO2 saved in Minneapolis through the MEC, and you can see that the home heating gadgets are the tip of an important (and possibly melting) iceberg. (On the neighborhood level, Longfellow and Seward have saved 293 and 242 tons, respectively.)
With the purchase of a thermostat, Welna II is offering a free 75-watt fluorescent lighbulb, guaranteed to last five years (based on four hours a day of use), which can further reduce carbon emissions. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 70 percent of Minnesota’s electricity is generated from burning coal, so using less means less pollution for both the environment and its inhabitants.
Those who take advantage of the deal must be Longfellow or Seward residents and sign up for the MEC, which offers even more strategies, programs, and services to help both residents and businesses reduce their “carbon footprint.” Would-be participants may sign up at Welna II — but hurry; the thermostat deal ends soon — or online at www.mnenergychallenge.org.
last revised: December 17, 2007