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News
2/18/2009
Apogee's HomeEnergySuite™ Adds to NSTAR's Push for Home Energy Efficiency
Online Calculators Reveal Home's Carbon Footprint,
ENERGY STAR® Yardstick Score and Key Green Actions
Feb. 18, 2009 - NSTAR recently expanded its menu of online energy efficiency tools for consumers to include a new HomeEnergySuite™ by Apogee Interactive. One of the components in this new series of interactive applications now on www.nstar.com is an online home energy audit in Spanish and English.
The flagship tool of the HomeEnergySuite is the Apogee HomeEnergyCalculatorTM, which NSTAR calls the "Home Analyzer." NSTAR had the calculator customized for regional weather zones, rates and home building standards. With a few keystrokes of information from customers, the online audit tool instantly analyzes a home's energy use, calculates the home's carbon footprint and recommends key energy-saving steps.
"The desire to live a "green" lifestyle has moved well beyond a casual interest into serious mainstream thinking," said Penni McLean-Conner, NSTAR's vice president of customer care. "We want customers to know not only how to save energy and money in their homes, but also the positive environmental benefit of reducing their carbon footprint."
The new web-based Home Analyzer also calculates and presents a benchmark score to let NSTAR customers know how their home stacks up to the nation's ENERGY STAR® home standards for energy efficiency. This score, called an ENERGY STAR Home Energy Yardstick, taps into the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy's ENERGY STAR database for national comparisons.
"Making a home more energy efficient is the consummate example of how individuals can 'act locally' to help our nation achieve its goal of improving overall energy performance," said Susan Gilbert, president and chief executive officer of Apogee Interactive. "Apogee deeply values this opportunity to assist NSTAR in its ongoing drive for greater energy efficiency among its customers."
While online with NSTAR's HomeEnergySuite, customers can tour an interactive house for room-by-room energy-saving advice and use a set of detailed calculators to see exactly how much energy is being consumed by their televisions and computers, appliances, lighting and other electrical equipment such as programmable thermostats for heating and cooling.
In addition, students and teachers will find a wealth of fun and educational materials about energy in the Kids Korner and Energy Library sections of the suite.
NSTAR joins more than 400 utilities across the county who utilize Web applications and software solutions from Apogee Interactive Inc. (www.apogee.net). Founded 15 years ago with a mission to help utilities increase customer energy efficiency, today Apogee is the largest provider of Web-based, customer-facing energy analysis tools in the US. Apogee's billing analysis, call center and onsite energy audit software can operate independently of or be fully integrated with a utility's automated meter reading and customer information billing systems.
Apogee's customers comprise a wide range of energy utilities including American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Entergy (NYSE: ETR), FPL (NYSE: FPL), Westar Energy (NYSE: WR), PECO (NYSE: EXC), Salt River Project and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
NSTAR (www.nstar.com, NYSE: NST) is the largest Massachusetts-based, investor-owned electric and gas utility. The company transmits and delivers electric and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in Eastern and Central Massachusetts.
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