To conserve power to help avoid a blackout, the power industry recommends: In heating season, set the furnace thermostat at 68 degrees or lower. In cooling season, set the thermostat at 78 degrees or higher. Most power is used …
Eligible co-op boards facing skyrocketing maintenance charges due to rising energy costs can seek assistance from the New York Energy Smart Assisted Multifamily Program (AMP), administered by the New York State Energy Research and Developm…
In New York City, electricity is a lot like Chinese food. It's ubiquitous, available for delivery right to your home, and is made with lots and lots of oil. But unlike a good Chinese restaurant, Con Edison, the electricity provider for alm…
Building owners, managers and even superintendents are always on the lookout for ways to trim their operating budget's bottom line. Electricity and fuel costs continue to climb year after year and identifying cost savings in this area can …
The billing system used by New York City's Water Board - an autonomous, seven-member panel appointed by the mayor to set rates for the city's water and sewer services - has long been grounds for heated debate. As of the late 1980s, the cit…
When people are charged for energy based on how much they use individually, good habits tend to follow. When you pay for electricity based on your usage, you're more likely to make sure that the lights are turned off when you leave a room,…
It began last August with noncompliance with energy regulations in Ohio, and within hours, much of the Eastern Seaboard - including the city that never sleeps - came to a standstill. Although some areas of the city recovered power faster t…
Recycling is good for the environment - everyone knows that. But it can be a pain keeping track of the changes - one year it doesn't include glass or plastics, the next, glass and plastics are back; one year, you recycle newspapers, the ne…
There's nothing worse than bad lighting. Take an otherwise beautiful room and illuminate it with the wrong kind of light - whether too dim, too bright, too hot, too cold, too pale, or too bleak - and the mood, feeling, and livability of th…
Two hundred years ago, a visitor to New York City remarked that the teeming sprawl was a "nasal disaster, where some streets smell like bad eggs dissolved in ammonia." While few would suggest that the city reeks today quite like it d…