Do It Yourself

When Meade County Electric Co-op officials in Brandenburg planned an energy-efficiency exposition for last October, they expected about 200 people to show up.

They got 700.

Kentuckians know that cutting down on wasted energy is a way they can take action to help their co-op utility, and the nation, make better use of our resources. And it can save money in their own household budget.

In this month�s Cut Your Utility Bills column you can take a quick trip back to that October expo and get some of those do-it-yourself efficiency ideas to try in your home.

More than 7,500 of you took the time and effort to register your actions and opinions in the Kentucky Living survey. By sending in those surveys included in the October magazine, you let others know that Kentucky Living readers take energy efficiency seriously. You said you value conserving electricity in your home, and a lot of you have already saved money and energy by using compact fluorescent light bulbs.

You can read about those survey results this month.

And in a remarkable example of taking charge of their own energy futures, in November the citizens of Monticello voted to become part of South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative, based in Somerset.

In moving from a municipally owned utility to a cooperatively owned utility, people in Monticello changed utilities, while keeping democratic control over their provider of electricity. They determined there would be a lot of other advantages to switching to a cooperative. You can read about those advantages on this Web site.

The buffet of stories in this issue displays a unique characteristic of energy. While it�s hugely important in our lives and can present us with vexing national and international problems, part of the solution lies in doing it ourselves.