O&R Advises Wise Summer Electricity Use to Save Money, Energy

To help its neighbors cope with the first week of summer’s high heat and humidity, O&R is providing some easy tips to stay cool and use energy wisely:

• Turning down or turning off air conditioning in your home while you are away or at work helps lower your energy bill.
• Setting your air conditioner to the highest temperature your comfort and health allow will help you save cooling money.
• Adjusting your air conditioner’s fan to a low setting can make you more comfortable. It’ll take longer for the air conditioner to cool your home, but your unit will bring in steamy air at a slower rate.
• Closing all doors and windows in your home while the air conditioning is running can make things cooler at a lower price.
• Cooking, baking or other household activities that produce heat and humidity are best left for the cooler times of the day and night.
• Pulling your curtains and shades closed can help block out the sun and the heat of the day.
• Covering liquid items in the refrigerator is best. The humidity those items give off forces the refrigerator to use more energy and that means higher costs.
• Placing the most used items in one place in the refrigerator helps keep the door open for a shorter period of time.

And, if you have already received a new smart meter, you can take advantage of viewing your detailed energy usage and customized energy savings tips located in your online account at oru.com. That information can show you what drives your energy up so you can take steps to reduce it.

View this video for more cool tips.

If you have a power outage, you can report it and check to see when your lights will be back on through:

• www.oru.com from any computer or web-based mobile device.
• O&R mobile app from your iPhone, iPad or Android device
• Text messaging by texting “OUT” to 69678 (myORU) or
• Call 1-877-434-4100.

If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it or that someone else will report it. To be sure the outage is reported. The more information you can provide, the more O&R can help you.

For energy efficiency tips, incentives and rebates, please visit www.oru.com/save.

Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies. O&R is a regulated utility that provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company), and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.