Efficiency Maine and Maine Libraries Restock Shelves to Help Keep Summer Electric Bills from Heating Up

Bangor, ME, July 11, 2009 --(PR.com)-- In a move to keep Mainer’s electricity bills from heating up this summer, Efficiency Maine and the Maine Libraries Association have teamed up to launch a new edition of what has been one of the most requested and popular items at public libraries around Maine this past year – the Kill-A-Watt® electricity usage monitor and educational toolkit.

The kits help residents and small business owners understand and manage power consumption of appliances and electronics in their homes and businesses.

Mainers are able to check out the Kill-A-Watt® monitors, just as they would check out a book, from their local library at no charge. These monitors simply plug into electrical outlets and then allow a consumer to plug in any appliance to get readout on how much electricity the appliance uses and then calculate how much money it’s costing.

The educational toolkits include an energy-savings tips brochure and energy tips bookmark which patrons will be able to keep.

Six hundred of the Kill-A-Watt® meters were first introduced to libraries in January as a single campaign, but the demand for them has been so great that Efficiency Maine decided to re-launch the program and donate another 200 hundred monitors to Libraries starting today at the Bangor Public Library.

Efficiency Maine Program Manager Dick Bacon said now that summer has arrived, and especially with the humidity from all the recent rain, out will come old air conditioners and fans, many which are not ENERGY STAR rated.

“With one of the Kill-A-Watt® meters, people will be able to see exactly how much electricity their old air conditioners are using and they can then compare this with what the new ENERGY STAR air conditioners will use. The results can be surprising and the Kill-A-Watt® will certainly solve the mystery of which appliances and electrical devices use the most power or drive up electricity bills, and which ones contribute the most to pollution and climate change,” said Bacon.

Maine Libraries Association Scholarship and Loan Committee co-chair Debbie Lozito, described the partnership between Efficiency Maine and Maine libraries as a stroke of genius.

“What better way to get the Kill-A-Watt® into the hands of Mainers than through Maine libraries. My personal Kill-A-Watt® story has to do with my dehumidifier that has been running pretty much non-stop all spring and summer. The Kill-A-Watt® showed that I was paying $79.00 per month to run the dehumidifier! You can be sure it’s unplugged now. This is such a simple and easy to use tool that is making a big impact,” she said.

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