{"id":100,"date":"2006-11-06T12:12:05","date_gmt":"2006-11-06T17:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/building.wordpress.com\/2006\/11\/06\/tenants-utility-bill-cost-cutting\/"},"modified":"2006-11-06T12:12:05","modified_gmt":"2006-11-06T17:12:05","slug":"tenants-utility-bill-cost-cutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Tenants: Utility Bill Cost Cutting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past summer, electricity was a hot topic (cough) throughout New York&#8217;s Queens Borough. Eleven day <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gothamist.com\/archives\/2006\/07\/24\/queens.php\" title=\"Gothamist Queens Blackout Day 8 \">power<\/a> outages brought on by the failures of 10 of the 22 primary feeders that provide power to the borough network failed. On top of that, ConEd customers have been subjected to the second highest electric rates in the country (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pulp.tc\/html\/pin2003_25.html\" title=\"Pulp.TC: Public Utility Law Project\">source<\/a>). Couple this kind of overhead with the rental costs of NYC and tenants aren&#8217;t likely to be happy near the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>There are however, a few ways for tenants to reduce some of their utility expenses.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Utilize programmable thermostats (if installed): Currently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ritetemp-thermostats.com\" title=\"Ritetemp Thermostats\">RiteTemp&#8217;s model 8050c Thermostat<\/a> is installed for each units\u00c2\u00a0gas furnace and it is working perfectly.\u00c2\u00a0For those tenants that still find programming their DVD\/VCR difficult, the Ritetemp thermostat comes with a preprogrammed Energy-Star approved schedule. For those wanting to customize the schedule, the operating guide can be found here: <a href=\"http:\/\/building.files.wordpress.com\/2006\/11\/ritetemp8050operationguide.pdf\" title=\"RiteTemp 8050 Operation Guide\">RiteTemp 8050 Operation Guide<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Compact Flourescent Lighting: <a href=\"http:\/\/building.wordpress.com\/2005\/12\/12\/energy-consumption-reduction-lighting\/\" title=\"lighting\">Earlier on<\/a> I mentioned the Home Depot Contractor pack of 60 watt equivalent compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs (these\u00c2\u00a0packs have since been discontinued).\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0If you are looking for detailed information on CFLs, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/members.misty.com\/don\/cfx.html\" title=\"http:\/\/members.misty.com\/don\/cfx.html\">Don Klipstein&#8217;s Compact Fluorescent page<\/a> is the place to go for it. One of the things I started to look for was the kelvin temperature of the light these bulbs emit. If looking for a soft yellow light look for bulbs with a color temperature of 2700k, as the temperature rating gets higher, the more clinical white the light emitted looks.<\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/everyday\/greenhouse\/tips.html\" title=\"Is your home a green home\">Power outlet vs. Power strip<\/a>: Plugging your TV and VCR\/DVD into a power strip rather than an outlet will save you about 2 percent on your annual electricity bill. Even when you turn these appliances off, they continuously leak up to 15 watts of electricity if they&#8217;re plugged into an outlet. When plugged into a power strip, however, these appliances leak only about one to three watts.<\/li>\n<li>Reconsider using the range or oven for heating food. While the extra heat from an oven can be welcome in the winter, a microwave uses only a fraction of the energy required by\u00c2\u00a0a full sized oven. If cooking using the range, use a pan that&#8217;s sized to the burner or element for more effective heating (small element +\u00c2\u00a0big pan = wasted fuel).<\/li>\n<li>Crock-Pots use much less energy to slow cook food than\u00c2\u00a0 simmering on a stove.<\/li>\n<li>Clean the coils on the refrigerator using a tapered appliance brush. The compressor\/motor won&#8217;t have to run as long or as often &#8211; thus saving on energy and device wear &amp; tear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking for more information?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/building.files.wordpress.com\/2006\/11\/cr_reducingenergycosts.jpg\" title=\"The Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs (Consumer Reports: You Need to Know)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/building.files.wordpress.com\/2006\/11\/cr_reducingenergycosts.jpg\" title=\"The Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs (Consumer Reports: You Need to Know)\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/building.files.wordpress.com\/2006\/11\/cr_reducingenergycosts.jpg\" alt=\"The Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs (Consumer Reports: You Need to Know)\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nConsumer Reports has published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1933524049?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=twistedstuden-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1933524049\">The Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs (Consumer Reports: You Need to Know)<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" width=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=twistedstuden-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1933524049\" height=\"1\" style=\"border:medium none;margin:0;\" \/>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/everyday\/greenhouse\/tips.html\">National Geographic: Is your home a &#8220;green&#8221; house?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.treehugger.com\/files\/2006\/09\/green_your_dorm.php\" title=\"How To Green Your Dorm Room\">Tree Hugger\u00c2\u00a0: Greening your dormroom<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/savingenergy.wordpress.com\/2006\/12\/20\/energy-consumption-by-household-appliances\/\">Energy Consumption by Household Appliances \u00c2\u00ab Saving Energy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Technorati Tags:<br \/>\n<a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Energy\">Energy<\/a> | <a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Education\">Education<\/a> | <a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Utilities\">Utilities<\/a> |<br \/>\n<a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/apartment\">Apartment<\/a> | <a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Landlord\">Landlord<\/a> | <a rel=\"tag\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/Small+Time+Landlord\">Small Time Landlord<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.xebecdata.com \" title=\"Xebec Data Corp\">Xebec Data Corp<\/a>. for the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.xebecdata.com\/default.asp?item=253413\" title=\"XebecData Utility Bill Cost Cutting\">link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past summer, electricity was a hot topic (cough) throughout New York&#8217;s Queens Borough. Eleven day power outages brought on by the failures of 10 of the 22 primary feeders that provide power to the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-education","category-improvements","category-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smalltimelandlord.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}