Have a Great 4th of July Celebration

With the holiday weekend upon us, what a great time to remember to implement energy conservation measures during the festivities.

• Enjoy the grilled hamburgers, chicken, or tofu with reusable utensils. Buy plates and silverware made of biodegradable material.
• Buy locally grown produce.
• Using a party tub full of ice and cold beverages? Also designate a recycling tub for all the cans and plastic bottles.
• Since you will be outside enjoying the weather, remember to draw the shades in the house to keep excess sunlight out and also turn the thermostat up, no use in cooling a house no one is in.
• To enjoy the fireworks outside, turn the inside lights off – it reduces any light interference.
• Consider buying Carbon Offsets to reduce your party’s footprint.

As with any celebration, remember to be safe and follow any safety precautions in activities such as bike riding, enjoying fireworks, or swimming.

We hope you enjoy the holiday and if there are others ways you are conserving, let us know.

The Blog Turns One Year Old!

Wow, summer seems to be flying by. In the midst of everything that’s going on, we wanted to take a second to reflect on our birthday this month. Everyone who helps contribute to the blog (on our end) would like to thank all of our readers and contributors for all of the success.
In the past year, we’ve had visitors from all of the continents, about 100 different countries, and all fifty states.

We’ve been interviewed by a number of industry leading magazines on the success and how we got the blog going. Just last week, we received an award from the Utility Communications International.

We couldn’t have asked for a better year.

Over the past year, we have posted on a variety of topics and have had success and great readership. Here is a list of a few of our most visited blog posts:

• Huge TVs Use Huge Amounts of Power
• Stocking Stuffers
• Take the Energy Conservation Quiz
• Energy Mythbuster Series
• Green iPhone Apps
• Hot Lips’ Sustainable Pizza, By Bike
• Save Money on your Taxes

We want to know from our readers: What would you like to see us write on? Are there topics you would like us to address? Here’s your opportunity to let us know where you’d like to see the direction of this blog go!

Thanks and looking forward to another great year!

Get Ready to Celebrate the First Day of Summer

The official start to summer is right around the corner - June 21. To make sure you are prepared for the summer heat, check out our speed links to websites that have summer conservation tips.

• Dominion Summer Tips
• ENERGY STAR Cooling Tips
• Energy Savers, Stay Cool, Save Money
• Alliance to Save Energy – Summer Tips

Feel free to post any of your personal favorite tips!

Catching the Breeze at Our Wind Farm

I'd like to bring you some good news. Dominion and its partner, Shell Wind Energy, today dedicated its NedPower Mount Storm Wind Project. Along the West Virginia mountain ridges, a 132-turbine facility resides, generating up to 264 megawatts of energy, enough to power about 66,000 homes and businesses. Half of these these megawatts are part of Dominion's 1,300 megawatts of renewable generation in operation, under construction or in development.

This is one of our many wind projects that bring clean energy to our customers. NedPower began construction in 2006 and today our chairman, president and CEO Tom Farrell and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III are atop windy Mount Storm celebrating the success of the project.

Check out our other operating wind project (Fowler Ridge in northwestern Indiana) and our planned projects (Prairie Fork in Illinois, Tazewell County in Virginia, and Wise County in Virginia).

Live Blog – SmartGrid Charlottesville

Here we are, in the gorgeous town of Charlottesville, Virginia, to tell you about one of Dominion’s new conservation initiatives: SmartGrid Charlottesville. The chairman, president, and CEO of Dominion, Tom Farrell, with Virginia’s Governor, Tim Kaine, and other government officials are announcing the SmartGrid Charlottesville initiative.

SmartGrid Charlottesville is a program that will enable the city of Charlottesville to benefit from “smart grid” technology. We’re going to be installing new, “smart meters,” across the city of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County. These “smart meters” are the foundation for the “smart grid,” which promotes energy conservation and environmental responsibility.

We’re testing out a number of new items (pending regulatory approval where required), including LED streetlights, remote electric service turn on and turn offs (this will be great for the University of Virginia students!), a really cool project with Positive Energy, the option of time-based rates, and some other demonstrations.

Pending regulatory approval, we plan to install smart meters and equipment throughout our entire Virginia service area over the next few years. The $600 million program is part of a plan the company announced in June 2008 that is expected to save customers more than $1 billion over the next 15 years through fuel savings and by potentially avoiding the need for two future power stations and delaying the need for two others.

We’re so excited to be part of this. I’ll be online for the next half hour to answer your questions regarding SmartGrid Charlottesville. I’ll do my best to get to everyone’s questions, but due to the anticipated high volume of traffic, I can’t guarantee I’ll get to it while I’m on site. I’ll send more when I get back to office.

Ceiling Fan Advantages

To help save on the cooling costs of your home, consider using ceiling fans. Moving air over the body provides a cooling effect. The use of ceiling fans means savings of around 25% on cooling costs and can make the temperature seem 10 degrees cooler.

Remember, ceiling fans cool people, not rooms. So when you’re not in the room, turn the fan off to save even more money.

You can use a ceiling fan all year round; just make sure it is spinning in the right direction for either cooling in summer or warm air circulation in winter. In the summer, you want the blades facing so the fans push the air downwards and vice versa in the winter.

Check out some more ceiling fan basics.

Catch our Live Blog – Tuesday, June 16 10:30 a.m.

Big news!

Our own Alison will be having our first ever live blog next Tuesday, June 16 from 10:30 a.m. until about 11:00 a.m. Can’t tell you what she’ll be blogging about (yet) or where she’ll be blogging from, but make sure you hop on your computer to engage in the conversation with her – it’ll be electrifying (sorry for the bad pun)!

Looking forward to it!

Editor's Note: We may get a tremendous amount of traffic and questions with this live blog, so we’ll do our best to post everyone’s questions and have Alison respond.

Summer Vacation – Green Locations

Summer vacation is here and so is the travel season. In the past we have told you about how to conserve while travelling and how to choose environmentally friendly hotels. But how about considering the actual location for your vacation as being green? There are many ways to even travel to eco-friendly locations.

You could try a nature hike through the rainforests of Costa Rica and experience the exotic wildlife. Or how about visiting the Galapagos Islands? More than 90% of the islands are protected by Ecuador’s national park system – you can enjoy the majesty of many species by cruise boat or even peering through snorkeling equipment. An African safari is another option, as nearly half of the wildlife species are protected by the government. While traveling in these exotic locations, make sure to leave them in the same (or better) conditions for others to enjoy!

There are many other gorgeous nature spots to visit while being eco-friendly. Where would you like to go?

New Year’s Resolution Tip #6 of 12 – Set your Programmable Thermostat to Vacation Mode

Estimated Cost: $30 - 50 to buy a programmable thermostat
Ease of Install: Medium
Other Notes: As many people take their summer trips to the Outer Banks, Cape Cod, and other relaxing destinations, I encourage you to set your programmable thermostat to Vacation mode. You can set the temperature at a higher degree and then have it set to return to your comfortable temperature for your return.

Here’s a 7 day programmable thermostat for $34.99 (plus tax/shipping) on newegg.com which is also ENERGY STAR® Certified.

Don’t forget to share this page to help others conserve energy and save money.