Do-It-Yourself tips for energy efficiency: Heating & Cooling

Education is a key part of our work, and one way we are helping residents lower their energy costs is by creating and sharing some short videos with Do-It-Yourself energy efficiency tip. This video features John Kidda, founder and President of reNew Homes, Inc., in Boone, N.C., discusses programmable thermostats as a way to save on heating and cooling.

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Energy bill acrobatics

For the Schmidt family of Tazewell, Tennessee, managing their budget is a balancing act, and one they have become very good at. But high electric bills–up to $300 in the winter–makes that balance tricky to maintain, sometimes leaving very little for emergency funds, much less for the home repairs they need that could actually lower their energy use.

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Keeping energy through the generations

“We do everything we can to keep energy,” Barbara Taylor says as she heads down the stairs to the basement of the home she has shared with her husband, Paul, in New Tazewell, Tennessee since 1980. Outside it’s a humid 78 degrees, but in the narrow basement room that houses the Taylors’ heat pump it’s cool and dry.

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Announcing the Energy Savings for Appalachia webinar series

If you happened to miss our first energy efficiency on-bill financing webinar on May 11, don’t despair. You can watch the recording of the webinar, which is the first in a series describing the benefits of on-bill financing entitled “Leveraging Energy Savings: On-bill Financing as an Economic Opportunity in the Southeast.”

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The Hidden Gem of Rocky Fork

This moderately strenuous hike through the mountains of eastern Tennessee follows an old logging trail to the 100-foot Big Falls on Lower Higgens Creek. Several creek crossings and caves mark the remainder of the path to Birchfield Camp Lake.

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