Helping Riverview residents conserve energy use in the home and business is very important to the environment and our pocketbooks. Have you heard about Electronic Energy Meters that are now available at local stores?

These units are very small and cost about $25 dollars each.

They are excellent for measuring power consumption for devices on circuits up to 15 amps. This includes items as large as a refrigerator.

In addition, we have many electronic devices that use small amounts of power even when turned off. These are called “phantom loads” as the usage is not readily apparent to the homeowner but electricity is used on a 24-hour basis for the whole year.

For example, a phantom load of 71watts for a television, cable modem, DVD, etc, may seem quite small. However, 71 watts x 8760 hours per year /1000 watts = 621 kWh, which at 11 cents = $68 per year. So, turning off this equipment with a power bar for 12 hours each day could save half of this figure. As well, there are benefits to NB Power, and to the environment in terms of less CO2 being emitted. Note that 620 kWh is the equivalent electrical energy that could be produced from one barrel of heavy oil.

As these Electronic Energy Meters are something that a person would not use frequently, the committee believes that this is an appropriate tool to have on hand for loan to Riverview residents.

We have purchased 6 of these units that are available to Riverview residents, on loan for periods of two weeks.

Please call ahead to the following number to ensure that a unit is available for you.

Riverview Town Hall 387-2022