CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

By: NPPD Energy Efficiency Program Manager Cory Fuehrer Have you ever reminisced about how hot a summer or how cold a particular winter was? It seems to be human nature to compare current outdoor temperatures to weather we experienced in the past. One of the late Johnny Carson’s favorite ways to set up a weather joke was to start by saying, “It was so hot today…” Having seen the routine many times, his audience would boisterously reply in unison, “How hot was it?!” Obviously, his reply was the punchline to which everybody laughed. But what if there was a way to quantify how hot or cold it truly was in order to compare it to other days, months or years in the past? Actually, there is and it’s called a “degree day”. Degree days are a measurement of how cold or warm a particular location was. A degree day compares the daily mean temperature (average of the day’s high and low outdoor temperature) to a standard temperature. In the U.S., that’s usually 65° Fahrenheit (F). The more extreme the outside temperature, the higher the number of degree days. A higher amount of degree days generally results in higher energy use for space heating or cooling. More specifically, heating degree days (HDDs) are a measure of how cold the temperature was on a given day or during a period of days. For example, a winter day with a mean temperature of 30°F has 35 HDDs. Two such cold days in a row have 70 HDDs for the two-day period. If the daily mean temperature is greater than 65°F, no HDDs are associated with that particular day. On the other hand, cooling degree days (CDDs) are a measure of how hot the temperature was on a given day. If a summer day had a mean temperature of 80°F, 15 CDDs would be recorded. If the next day had a mean temperature of 85°F, 20 CDDs would be assigned to it. The total CDDs for the two days is 35 CDDs. By totaling HDDs and CDDs for entire months or years, comparisons to previous months or years can be made. Say you’d like to evaluate an average of how much energy it might take to heat and cool your home. Degree days, along with your heating and cooling system’s efficiencies and other factors can be included in this equation to provide a fairly accurate estimate. Degree days also provide possible insight as to why energy bills were higher or lower than anticipated. The Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (NDWEE) provides historical degree day and degree day normals on a monthly basis for 12 cities around the state in addition to the state's overall average degree days. Degree day normals are 30–year averages over a baseline comparison period. Currently, NDWEE uses 1991–2020 for the baseline. Nebraska's overall HDD normal for a year is 6281. The CDD normal for a year is 996. (Note that commas are not used degree day data.) In comparison, Hawaii's HDD normal is 1 and its CDD normal is 4766. Hawaiians use almost no energy for heating but need to use huge amounts if they wish to keep indoor spaces below 80°F. In contrast, Colorado's HDD and CDD normals are 7053 and 329 respectively. While our neighbors to the west use a little more energy than us for heating, they require only about one-third of the energy to keep cool. In the 2024/2025 season, Nebraska's HDD totaled 5956, which was 325 HDD less than normal. This indicates last winter in Nebraska was about 5% warmer than normal. For the upcoming winter, the “Old Farmer's Almanac” forecasts above-normal temperatures in the Cornhusker state. By the end of next June, we should know if the prediction was right. In the meantime, when a friend claims the winter of 2018/2019 was the coldest they remember, you can prove the winter of 1978/1979 was actually the coldest in more than 50 years.  Regardless of what the upcoming winter is like, your local public power provider, in partnership with Nebraska Public Power District, may have an EnergyWiseSM incentive available when you upgrade your heating, ventilation and air conditioning system’s efficiency. Contact your local utility or visit www.energywisenebraska.com for more details.

It’s almost leaf-blowing season. Before you power up your leaf-blower and other electrical outdoor tools, check your outlets and cords for safety. Here’s how: Inspect outlets: Look for cracked or broken covers and replace any that are damaged to prevent water from getting inside and behind them. Test GFCI outlets: Outdoor outlets should be ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs). Press the “test” and “reset” buttons monthly to ensure they’re working. If your home is older, contact a licensed electrician to find out if yours are GFCIs. Examine extension cords: Check cords for frays, cracks or exposed wires. Damaged cords should be replaced immediately. Use outdoor-rated cords: Only use cords labeled for outdoor use. They are designed to withstand weather conditions. Keep connections dry: Avoid plugging cords into outlets when raining or the ground is wet. Use outlet covers and keep cords elevated off wet ground. Regularly inspecting your outdoor outlets helps prevent hazards like shocks or fires. A little maintenance now can keep your fall projects safe and trouble-free.

If you want to keep the hot summer heat out of your air-conditioned home, keep the sunlight out. Close your blinds and shades, and your home will feel cooler and more comfortable. Any heat that comes in with the sunshine will compete with the cool air your central air conditioning system is pumping out, making your rooms feel hotter and tempting you to lower the thermostat. Closing curtains and other window coverings during daylight hours will save your a/c from having to work so hard, which could make it operate more efficiently and even extend its life.

Your family might use your covered outdoor porch or patio more often this summer if you keep the temperature out there cooler by installing a ceiling fan. Outdoor ceiling fans come with ratings like “damp” or “wet” that indicate what kind of climate—like humid or rainy—they can operate in safely. Never install an indoor fan on your outdoor porch; it’s not safe. Instead, choose one specifically made for outdoor use with all-weather blades, corrosion- and rust-resistant paint finishes, and a motor casing featuring a waterproof seal. Overhead fans are a great addition to a porch, sunroom or even a garage. Even in outdoor rooms with extra sunlight, a fan can circulate the air, making anyone sitting or standing nearby feels cool and comfortable.

The bathroom is one of the few places in the home where electrical appliances and water have a great chance to meet—and a great chance to cause electrical shock or death. If you have kids, the bathroom can be a room of hazards—electrical or otherwise— waiting to happen. But it doesn’t have to be. Try these tips to dampen the danger: Use a bathmat with a non-skid bottom on the floor and use a non-slip mat or decals on the floor of the tub. Keep medications and vitamins in their original containers to avoid confusion and always choose child-resistant caps. Keep medications and cleaning supplies locked away if small children are around. Make a storage space under the counter and out of the way for hair dryers, curling irons and other electrical appliances that could be hazardous with water contact. Educate children on the dangers of mixing water and electricity. Use nightlights in the hallway and bathroom for easy bathroom access at night. Don’t leave children unattended during bath time. If you have toddlers, use toilet seat locks to prevent drowning. Check the temperature of bath water and fully fill the tub before putting children in. Tap water can instantly scald if you let it run too hot. Lower the temperature on your water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to guard against burns but keep bathwater at 100 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Use only electrical appliances or cords that bear the label of an independent testing laboratory like Underwriters Laboratories.

By: NPPD Energy Efficiency Program Manager Cory Fuehrer Any long-time grain producer in Nebraska will tell you the key to a successful season depends on their crops getting the correct amount of moisture, in the correct manner and at the correct time without any other major devastations. During some wet years, yields from dryland acres will rival those from irrigated ground. However, during most years, irrigation provides a significant advantage. It comes down to water. Farming both dryland and irrigated acres, my grandfather appreciated a wet summer since both types of fields produced well. While unloading grain trucks at harvesttime many years ago, he would say with a grin on his face, “You can’t count it until it’s in the bin!” Today, successful grain marketers would likely say, “Hold on. We don’t count it until it’s sold!” Their concern? It comes down to water. For those unfamiliar with the process, nearly all grain is stored for some period of time before it is sold or fed to livestock. When it is sold, a variety of factors determine the price, the largest being test weight and moisture content. Whether it’s corn, soybeans, wheat or sorghum, each type of grain has an ideal level of moisture content to optimize the test weight at the time of sale. To achieve that level, many choose on-farm storage in grain bins and silos. The length of time grain can be stored and maintain quality is also highly dependent on moisture content. In general, the lower the moisture content, the longer it can be stored. While drying grain with heat is often done immediately following harvest, when the grain is moved to storage, it requires aeration. The storage facilities have large fans that force air through the grain to remove excess heat and moisture. Here’s where optimizing quantity and quality can become challenging. If the moisture level isn’t low enough at the time of sale, the price received is penalized. Worse yet, the grain could spoil or become infested with insects in storage and become worthless before the producer can even get it to market. However, overaerating reduces the weight by which grain is measured for selling, which reduces the overall amount of money the producer receives. In the past, some producers took the traditional, time-intensive steps to monitor conditions inside the bin, as well as outdoor weather conditions, and only ran fans when needed and appropriate. But, the majority of producers erred on the side of caution and operated the fans excessively, thinking a reduced total payment was better than possibly no payment at all. Today, the process of monitoring and aerating only when appropriate has been automated by several companies that offer the necessary hardware and computer applications. Temperature and moisture sensors and/or off-gassing analyzers identify the grain’s condition inside the storage. Onsite or local weather stations identify temperature and relative humidity outside the facility. This information is fed into software that continuously determines if and when aeration is appropriate. When it is, a signal is sent to an aeration controller that activates the fans. Once conditions inside the bin or outside weather change, the controller automatically turns the fans off. While automated aeration control systems can be expensive, optimized grain quality and reduced losses help recover the investment quickly. To further defray the cost, your local public power provider may have an EnergyWiseSM incentive available once installation is complete. Contact your local utility or visit www.energywisenebraska.com. for additional details. Your local utility, in partnership with Nebraska Public Power District, wants to help you get the most value from the energy needed to raise and store your crops

School may be out for the summer, but here’s a test: On a hot day, will setting the thermostat at a very low temperature cool your house faster? If you answered yes, you’re in need of summer school. Lowering the thermostat beyond the temperature you desire only makes your air conditioner run longer, not faster. You could end up paying more money for an uncomfortably chilly house. Here are a few more lessons to add to your air conditioning know-how: Want to pay to be cool only when you’re at home? Install a programmable thermostat, which lets you set the thermostat higher for hours when the house is empty, but lower during your at-home hours. It takes less energy to re-cool your home when you return than it does to keep it cool while you’re gone. Set the thermostat at 78 degrees. You’ll save about 15 percent on your cooling bill over a 72-degree setting, while remaining comfortable. Keep lamps and other heat-emitting devices—like TVs and large electronics—away from the thermostat. Such appliances can trick the thermostat into “thinking” the air is warmer than it really is so it should keep running when the house is already cool. The morning sun might help you wake up, but don’t forget to close your curtains and window shades before you leave the house for the day to keep the sun’s heat out. If you use room air conditioners, make sure they fit snugly into window frames, and close all heating ducts.

Journeyman or Apprentice Lineman Position

Hot summer days put people at risk for heat-related illnesses and can exacerbate existing medical conditions. Doctors recommend you spend the hottest part of the day indoors enjoying the air conditioning. But for those whose homes don’t have air conditioning or who can’t afford to turn it on, the risk is acute. That’s especially true for the elderly or ill, who could be at risk for heat stroke or even death. If you know someone whose house might get too hot to handle this summer, call them or stop by to check on them every day. Use a neighborhood association directory or your own personal contacts to arrange phone calls during the summer months to elderly neighbors or those who live alone. Encourage neighbors or family members to use air conditioners during the hottest part of the day or spend it in an air conditioned public place, like a mall or library. If you find someone in medical distress because of the heat, call 911. Some states and counties encourage residents to help keep their neighbors safe through organized campaigns. Your local Salvation Army or hospital can tell you about programs already in your area. Or you can start one in your own neighborhood. Enlist the support of your local politicians or non-profit organizations to arrange a countywide system. One phone call could save a life.