Your PUD News Release

PUD experts answer your cold-weather questions

Chelan County PUD
News Release
12/16/2008

With low temperatures forecast for the teens and below, questions about energy use are rising. Chelan County PUD energy expects are posting answers to frequently asked questions on the Conservation section of this Web site.

Customers can send their questions to PUD Conservation staff by e-mail, conservation@chelanpud.org or give them a call at 661-8008.

Several questions have come in about the effectiveness of heat pumps as temperatures tumble. Here’s what Jim White, senior energy conservation engineer had to say:

“Even though the heat pump is running all of the time and not putting out very much heat at cold temperatures, the amount of heat it is bringing into the home is greater than the amount of electric energy going into the compressor motor.”

In most cases, it’s better to leave the heat pump running rather than relying only on auxiliary heat, White concludes.

You’ll find answers to other questions such as how low to set your thermostat at night on the same Web page.

Electric energy use by Chelan PUD customers hit a new peak of 441 megawatts for the hour ending at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 16 with a temperature of 2 degrees (F) at Pangborn Memorial Airport. The previous record of 440 megawatts at 7 degrees (F) was reached on Jan. 23, 2008.

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Kimberlee Craig
Public Information Officer
(509) 661-4320, office
(509) 679-6858, mobile