Company helps by debunking costly energy myths

Beaumont, Texas — Like their neighbors nationwide, customers of Entergy Texas, Inc. are finding ways to cut their energy use.
An uncertain economy seems to be the reason. The methods, though, show misconceptions about energy use that can actually lead to practices that lower energy efficiency.

“Some of these old wives’ tales are often believed to be fact and end up costing customers,” said Vernon Pierce, director of customer service for Entergy Texas, Inc. “Not only that, they can reduce personal comfort and lead to unnecessary maintenance on equipment.”
Some of the more common energy myths are:

• Adjusting a heating and cooling system for when a home’s occupants are away makes the system work harder when residents return. Those who buy into this myth believe the system must use more energy to reheat or re-cool the house. But thermostats don’t work this way. Rather, the system turns on to reach a set level, then shuts off when that level is reached. This is much like a switch that shuts on and off.

• Leaving lights, computers and other equipment on uses less energy than turning them on and off. Your parents were right—turn the light out when you leave a room, turn the TV off when you’re not watching it and shut the computer down at night. In most cases, the small amount of power needed to start a device is much less than the power wasted by leaving it on when it is not needed.

• Screen savers save energy. If you want to save energy, turn the monitor off when not in use. Screen savers are designed to keep images from being “burned into” the computer monitor when they are displayed on the screen for an extended time. They use about as much electricity as any other image on your computer.

• Switching computers and other equipment on and off causes damage. A long-held belief is that temperature changes that result from turning equipment on and off damages internal parts. However, modern electronic equipment is designed to minimize these effects. In fact, the reduced running time can increase the life of the equipment.

• Turning off a device cuts the power to it. This was true before the development of transistor-style plugs. Now many common appliances like coffee makers, hair dryers and cell phone chargers continue to use power after they have been switched off. The only way to stop the power drain is to unplug them.

“Using energy wisely is friendly to your wallet and it’s simple to do,” Pierce said. “For more ideas on how to cut energy bills, visit entergy-texas.com. There’s even a section called ‘Just for Kids’ that makes energy education fun.”

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to 400,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations Entergy Corp. owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy Corp. delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy Corp. has annual revenues of over $14 billion and approximately 14,700 employees.

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