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I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent the last few years thinking about reducing my impact to the environment and trying in small ways here and there to make a difference whenever possible. During our home renovations we spent a lot of time researching the right time of insulation, windows and building materials to keep heat/AC in and the elements out. We suspect this will help with our energy bills tremendously and anything that helps my wallet and the environment at the same time is good in my book.

We also got a lot of our building supplies from the Queens based Build It Green! NYC ^[2], a huge warehouse full of donated and used building supplies available at a fraction of their new cost. BIG! helps the environment by reducing trash and recycling materials. They are also a great bunch of people to work with–very helpful!

But it’s easy to help the environment when it’s also saving you money, right? We also looked into wind power two years ago but found that our electric bills would almost twice what they are now. And that we just couldn’t swing. Until now.

Well it now appears that ConEd has launched a new Clean Energy ^[3] site for their residential customers, where you can sign up for fixed price Green Power (65% Hydro-Electric/35% Wind) or variable priced Green or 100% Wind Power. When you enter your ConEd account number on the site they will give you an estimate of the price difference between your standard power and Green power. In my case, the difference was pretty small: Standard Power is 14.40 cents/kwh and Green Power is 15.40 cents/kwh.

ConEd says that for the average residential customer it’s only about $3.50 more per month for Green power, while Wind will run an average of $8.75 per month more. ConEd also offers a $25 rebate when you sign up for either option. We opted for Green Power because Wind is currently not available at a fixed monthly price. I’m curious to see the difference in our first bill.

Do you all have any suggestions for decreasing your environment footprint in NYC?

Green Power: Earth-Friendly Electric Bills ^[4] [Brooklyn Record]
Sign Up for Clean Energy ^[3] [ConEdison Solutions]
Build It Green! NYC ^[2]
Student Energy Photo ^[5] [Southern Alliance for Green Energy ^[6]]