HALO-Flight Guardian Program

Did you know the average emergency helicopter transportation and critical care service bill exceed $20,000?

HALO-Flight, South Texas’ nonprofit air ambulance service, provides the fastest and safest emergency air transportation and medical care for residents and visitors of South Texas. One-third of HALO-Flight’s missions are from rural, community hospitals to definitive care facilities in Corpus Christi, San Antonio or Houston, TX.

As an NEC Co-op Energy Member you have the added benefit of joining the HALO-Flight Gaurdian Membership plan at a significantly reduced price of $3 per month, $36 annually, which is applied to your NEC bill.

Guardian Membership Benefits include:

• Discounted Membership,Decreased out of pocket expenses on HALO-Flight patient bills

• Guardian Member with Insurance = Zero Out of Pocket Expenses

• Guardian Member without Insurance = 50% Bill Reduction

• Coverage for all individuals living within the household on a permanent basis; including custodial, non-custodial children, and dependents at college.

• Decreased out of pocket expenses on Dallas CareFlite, a HALO-Flight reciprocal partner, patient bills.

To learn more about the HALO-Flight Gaurdian Membership visit www.haloflight.org/guardian.

To learn more about CareFlite’s membership terms, visit their website at www.careflight.org.

How To Use Your Oven Efficiently

Buying products that bear the Energy Star label is a surefire way to save electricity around the house. But the Department of Energy doesn’t require energy-efficiency labels for ovens, so it’s up to you to conserve energy as you prepare meals. Here’s how:

• Use a microwave rather than a conventional oven whenever you can. Microwaves use half as much energy as an oven and cook food faster.

• Preparing a small meal? Cook it in a portable appliance like an electric frying pan, grill or toaster oven. These small appliances eat up about twothirds less electricity than an oven’s broiler.

• Cook as much of an oven-baked meal at once as possible. Variations in heat of 25 degrees in either direction will still brown your food nicely.

• Consider turning the oven off early to allow your food to continue baking with residual heat without using more electricity.

• Defrost food before baking it. This not only saves energy because your oven won’t have to thaw the food before actually baking it, it ensures your meal will be heated through at an even temperature, which helps kill foodborne pathogens.

• If you need to rearrange your oven shelves, do it before you turn the oven on. That helps you waste less heat by not opening the door of a heated oven— and it can prevent burns.

• Avoid opening the oven door while your food is cooking.

• Wipe up minor oven spills with a damp cloth and use the oven’s self-cleaning cycle only for major messes. And when you need the self-cleaner, run it right after you prepare a meal, when the oven is already hot.

DID YOU KNOW?

Electrical devices that come into contact with water can cause electric shock. Never bring electric devices near a swimming pool.

Summer Conservation Tips

In the heat of a Texas summer, we all want to keep cool in the air conditioning and grab a cold drink from the fridge. But remember that summer is the peak demand season for electricity, and the appliances that help make the season’s searing heat bearable can also drive up your electric bill.

Keep Your Fridge Cool

Here are some tips to keep refrigerator energy use to a minimum:

• L ocate the refrigerator away from heat sources— the oven, the dishwasher and direct sunlight.

• A llow at least a 1-inch space around the outside of the fridge to enable air circulation.

• Clean the condenser coils at least once a year.

• Check the tightness of the door seals.

• Use a thermometer to check the inside temperatures: The fridge should be 36–38 degrees and the freezer zero to 5 degrees.

Make Friends With Your Freezer

• K eep the freezer as full as possible.

• Mark items for quicker identification to reduce open-door time.

Give Your AC an Assist

Follow these tips to keep it from heating up your electric bill too much:

• You save 3%–5% for each degree you raise the thermostat. Try setting it at 78 degrees.

• Use ceiling fans in conjunction with the AC to feel cooler.

• K eep humidity levels as low as possible by always using an exhaust fan, if you have one, when taking a shower.

• Maintenance is important. Clean or change AC filters regularly, and have units professionally cleaned, inspected and tuned every season to keep them running at peak efficiency

Beat The Peak Conservation Vs Conservation Appeal From Ercot

Beat the Peak Conservation is requested conservation during the high demand times of 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. These alerts are put in place by NEC in order to keep Texas 4CP costs down for our members. It is important for us to note that these types of conservation alerts are NOT due to lack of resources.

Conservation Appeals from ERCOT, ask Texans and Texas businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity to reduce the demand on the earth’s natural resources. These alerts are to reduce the demand on natural resources. It’s a lot easier if we all conserve during these hours than to have to suffer rotating outages.