Students benefit from Wake Electric’s energy monitoring service

molly-bostic

Heritage High School teacher Molly Bostic, a Wake Electric member, said, “In five or six years, these students will be making their own decisions when it comes to energy consumption, and I hope they will take this lesson with them as they grow into adults.”

Students at Heritage High School in Wake Forest recently learned life lessons about energy conservation through an environmental science project in which the local electric cooperative, Wake Electric, took on an unexpected role.

Their teacher, Molly Bostic, assigned students to monitor their home electricity usage for a 10 day-period and then determine their average daily electric use and cost. She also asked students to consider areas where reduced consumption and other changes could result in energy cost savings.
Students whose families are Wake Electric members were able to use its new Monitor & Manage program to help track and evaluate their electric use. The Monitor & Manage program is an online system that can collect energy data from each home. Students who are Wake Electric members could log in to their parents' accounts and see firsthand the energy consumption at their houses.
"The students who used the Monitor & Manage program had a higher level of understanding of their energy usage, and their conclusions were deeper and more reflective," said Bostic. She said the students "were able to go online the very next day and notice things such as, 'Hey, we ran four loads of laundry yesterday, and look how many more kilowatt-hours we used.'"
To help members track their electricity usage, Wake Electric recently introduced the PowerUp with PrePay program, a pay-as-you-go billing option. Members participating are automatically notified via phone and e-mail when their account gets low on funds and they can track through the Monitor & Manage program how much electricity they have used.
For more information on Wake Electric's member services, visit www.wemc.com.

Wake Electric is a non-profit electric utility serving over 35,000 members in parts of Franklin, Durham, Granville, Johnston, Vance, Nash, and Wake counties.

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