FORT MYERS, Fla. – In partnership with the City of Fort Myers, Florida Power & Light Company today treated 50 local families to holiday Home Energy Makeovers, upgrading households to improve their energy efficiency, which helps the environment and saves customers money by reducing energy consumption.
Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson issued an official proclamation designating Dec. 15 as “Energy Awareness Day” in the city. Home Energy Makeover teams, consisting of FPL energy experts, city employees and volunteers, fanned out to make numerous energy-efficient upgrades, including decorating homes with LED holiday lights, which save up to 90 percent in energy consumption compared to traditional incandescent lights.
The energy-efficiency improvements combined have the potential to save customers as much as 25 percent on their utility bills each year.
“Many energy-efficient upgrades start paying off immediately so you won’t have to squeeze your holiday budget to make changes,” said Charlotte Miller, FPL’s external affairs area manager. “The money-saving, energy-conserving solutions that FPL demonstrated today in our Home Energy Makeovers can be easily replicated at a low cost by any FPL customer who wants to make smarter, cleaner energy choices.”
FPL’s Helpful Holiday Tips Part 4: Why Wait? Install Year-Round Savings Now
In recent weeks, customers have learned about decorating, cooking and heating efficiently this holiday season. For the fourth installment of the Holiday Tips series, FPL encourages customers to consider some of the many upgrades that the Home Energy Makeover teams made today in Fort Myers:
• Insert refrigerator and freezer thermometers to prevent wasting energy. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, recommended temperatures are 37 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator and 5 degrees for the freezer section. If you have a separate freezer for long-term storage, it should be kept at 0 degrees.
• Install weather-stripping to help seal off windows and doors and relieve your home’s air conditioner or heating system from doing extra work.
• Install water-saving showerheads and faucet aerators. Using less hot water will save you money on your electric bill. These energy-savers are simple to install and you can reduce home water consumption and water heating costs by as much as 50 percent when you replace your old showerhead with an efficient model.
• Install lifetime air-conditioning filters or replace disposable filters monthly. A clogged filter makes your air-conditioning system work harder than it has to.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs use 75 percent less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs. They also generate 70 percent less heat, cutting energy costs associated with cooling, and last up to 10 times longer.
Learn about more year-round money-saving improvements with FPL’s Energy Savings Toolkit section at www.FPL.com.
FPL’s Home Energy Makeover Program
The Home Energy Makeover initiative leverages the combined power of FPL employees and partners to tackle 50 homes in one day. To complete the task, FPL energy experts and volunteers visit the homes of residents who are pre-qualified by a local municipality through an application process. The Makeover teams spend one to two hours in each home, making upgrades and educating homeowners about other no- or low-cost measures they can take to further reduce their energy use. Many of the homeowners are senior citizens living on fixed incomes.
Entire neighborhoods benefit from energy efficiency as customers save thousands of dollars on electric costs while helping the environment with an overall reduction in energy consumption. Since the program’s inception in 2006, more than 350 families in the counties of St. Lucie, Miami-Dade, Sarasota, Broward, Palm Beach, Brevard, Flagler and now Lee are able to enjoy more energy-efficient homes.
Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is the largest electric utility in Florida and one of the largest rate-regulated utilities in the United States. FPL serves 4.5 million customer accounts in Florida and is a leading employer in the state with nearly 11,000 employees. The company consistently outperforms national averages for service reliability while customer bills are well below the national average. A clean energy leader, FPL has one of the lowest emissions profiles and the No. 1 energy efficiency program among utilities nationwide. FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE: FPL). For more information, visit www.FPL.com.