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ELECTRIC NOTES
WHEN CARS AND POWER LINES COLLIDE
If your car comes in contact with a power line, a state of panic may set in. Try to stay calm and follow these tips:
You should remain inside your vehicle. If you are in your car, you are not part of electricity’s path, which always looks for the shortest way to the ground. Honk your horn to alert passers-by.
If someone stops to help, roll down the window and warn them not to touch the car or the power line. Ask them to phone 911 and contact the local electric utility immediately.
Wait in your car until qualified electrical workers turn the power off and tell you it’s safe to leave the car.
If you have to leave the car because of fire or other danger, open the door and jump away from the vehicle so no part of your body touches the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Make sure to jump with both feet together so that they land on the ground at the same time.
After you land with both feet together, shuffle away, keeping both feet in contact with the ground constantly.
Do not try to help anyone from the vehicle. If you do, you may become a path for electricity and be injured or killed.
Source: National Weather Service
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE ENERGY ‘VAMPIRES’
Beware: There’s a power-hungry fiend haunting your house—and, no, it’s not a Halloween visitor. With vigilance, you can stop the drain on your pocketbook by fighting the electricity “vampires” that you may find lurking in every room.
Vampire power, also called standby power, is the energy used by many appliances when they are turned off but still plugged in.
TVs, DVD players and stereos all use standby power after you shut them off because they need to stay energized to remain responsive to your remote control.
Your desktop computer also uses electricity when it’s in sleep mode. And anything with a built-in clock uses electricity even when the appliance isn’t running.
You can turn those items off and unplug them when you’re not using them. Or, better yet, plug them into power strips with a switch and turn the strip off.
Each appliance wastes just a little bit of power in standby mode, and those kilowatt-hours add up. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy reports that standby power can account for as much as 20 percent of home energy use.
This year, slay the vampires in your home. Here’s how:
• Unplug all of your electronics—including the pieces of your entertainment system—if you go away for the weekend.
• Unplug seldom-used electronics like a second TV or your old VCR until you want to use them.
• Power down desktop computers and laptops when you’re finished working. If you have a home office, the same goes for printers and fax machines.
• Choose new products that bear the Energy Star label. They typically use less standby power.
• Invest in an “intelligent” power strip for your computer equipment. It “knows” when you turn your computer off—and it turns off your monitor, printer and scanner at the same time, so you don’t have to remember. It turns them all back on when you power up the computer.
OCTOBER IS NATIONAL COOPERATIVE MONTH
There’s something special about the utility that brings electricity to your home: It’s a consumer cooperative, and you’re more than a customer. You’re a member.
The hallmarks of a cooperative business are its seven guiding principles. They are:
1. VOLUNTARY AND OPEN MEMBERSHIP. Your electric cooperative offers membership to everyone who lives in its service area.
2. DEMOCRATIC MEMBER CONTROL. Because you’re a member of the cooperative, you’re eligible to run for a seat on its board of directors and help the management make decisions. Don’t have time to serve? You can still vote for others from your community who run for the seats.
3. MEMBERS’ ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION. When you pay your electric bill, you’re doing more than buying electricity. You’re contributing to the financial health of your electric cooperative. In return, your cooperative will send you a refund if it takes in more money than it needs after meeting all of its obligations to you and the community. These refunds are called capital credits.
4. AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE. Your electric cooperative doesn’t sell stock to Wall Street investors. Cooperatives are locally owned and controlled by their members.
5. EDUCATION, TRAINING AND INFORMATION. You’re reading this publication because your cooperative is committed to keeping its members up to date about what’s going on at your utility. It also makes sure that the community members who serve on the board of directors—along with managers, employees and others—are trained and knowledgeable about the business of the cooperative.
6. COOPERATION AMONG COOPERATIVES. If you’ve ever seen a bucket truck with an unfamiliar logo on it after a storm, it could be from a neighboring electric cooperative that has lent its crews to help out during an emergency. Likewise, your utility pitches in when other cooperatives need help.
7. CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY. The managers and staff who work for your cooperative also live in the community. So the utility takes a keen interest in the economic development and well-being of the neighborhoods it serves.
Electric cooperatives practice each of these principles every day as they provide members with the high-quality service they deserve.
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