Village, CUB join in program to reward energy saving

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Northbrook officials are encouraging village residents to sign up for a program in conjunction with the Citizens Utility Board that they say could mean measurable savings on electric bills.

CUB’s Energy Saver program allows homeowners to sign up for personalized recommendations for reducing their electrical usage. The program then allows them to see the actual impact of those changes on energy use.

“This is great opportunity for Northbrook residents to lower their energy usage and earn rewards by doing so,” said Dan Kaup, Northbrook assistant to the village manager. “The program makes it easy to be a more responsible steward of our environment.”

CUB Energy Saver, created in June 2010, has already saved its 112 Northbrook members $3,751. Kaup said.

The Northbrook residents who have used CUB Energy Saver to monitor their electric use saved a combined 33,615 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power four average Illinois homes for a year.

The savings are actual, not estimates, because CUB Energy Saver links to your ComEd bill. Kaup said.

“Just as Netflix gives people personalized movie recommendations, CUB Energy Saver suggests hundreds of money-saving actions that are personalized for your particular home,” he said.

The free service then rewards residents with two points for every kilowatt-hour of electricity saved.

According to CUB points can be redeemed for gift cards, museum passes, and restaurant and shopping discounts. Participants can get rewards from national brands, such as Sears, Foot Locker and online retailers.

CUB Energy Saver accounts for weather and climate factors when analyzing energy usage, so participants in the program are not penalized due to changes in season or drastic weather effects.

Savings and points are based on comparing current bills to past electrical usage as well as to neighbors’ behavior with control for changes in weather.

CUB officials said that homeowners’ private information is not compromised by using he program.

CUB Energy Saver only reads the total kilowatt-hour (kwh) usage on a monthly basis and does not share this information with anyone else. All savings recommendations are estimates based on assumptions that rely on usage history, publicly available information and any other information customers provide.

Privacy settings for personal information can be edited by visiting the Settings page on the CUB Energy Saver website.

To participate in the rewards program, customers must agree to share kwh usage data with CUB Energy Saver by linking a ComEd account.

In addition, on the Settings page, customers can decide whether to share information with people in the neighborhood.

No usage or billing information is ever transmitted among customers.

Northbrook residents can sign up by going to www.CUBenergysaver.com/teams/northbrook

To find out more about CUB Energy Saver and the village’s involvement go to www.Northbrook.il.us/CUB.