Energy Awareness Month
Free Home Energy Audit
If MidAmerican Energy is your home's primary source of heating fuel and your house was built before Jan 1, 2004, call 800-545-0762 to schedule your free energy audit.
Business Energy Benchmarking
Go to portfoliomanager.energystar.gov to benchmark your business' energy and water use and share your data with the City Energy Management Specialist. Learn More
Weatherize your home for winter
Go to www.wikihow.com/Weatherize-Your-Home to learn how to weatherize your home.
Take the 2-Mile Challenge
According to the Federal Highway Administration, 40 percent of all car trips in the United States are two miles or less. And while Americans have one of the highest rates of bike ownership in the world, we have one of the lowest rates of bike usage. Why not replace those car trips with bike rides?
Investing in...
Energy-efficient equipment
As equipment becomes outdated and needs to be replaced, every effort is being made to ensure replacements are as energy-efficient as possible. At the Water Department and the Water Pollution Control Facility, flood damaged pumps have been replaced with energy-efficient equivalents. These replacements are anticipated to create a combined savings of 1.5 million kilowatt hours per year! This is equivalent to:
- 1,034 metric tons of CO2 equivalent
- Annual greenhouse gas emissions from 203 passenger vehicles
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 129 homes for one year
Reducing natural gas usage
The Cedar Rapids Water Pollution Control Facility has been off-setting natural gas consumption used to fuel the on-site incinerator by using methane biogas that is generated as a by-product of the facility's anaerobic reactors. This practice is responsible for a natural gas savings of approximately 19.5 billion BTUs in Fiscal Year 2013! This is equivalent to:
- 1,034 metric tons of CO2 equivalent
- Annual greenhouse gas emissions from 218 passenger vehicles
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 94 homes for one year
Energy-efficient lighting upgrades
Energy-efficient lighting upgrades are taking place in many City facilities, with tremendous savings already being observed. Several downtown parkades have been the recipients of energy-efficient lighting retrofits, receiving either fluorescent or LED lighting upgrades, in addition to being connected to the citywide Energy Management System. Since the completion of these projects , the downtown parkades have experienced a combined savings of approximately 2,400,000 kilowatt hours! This is equivalent to:
- 1,654 metric tons of CO2 equivalent
- Annual greenhouse gas emissions from 348 passenger vehicles
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 151 homes for one year
Click here to find out more about the City's energy saving efforts.
What Can i Do?
