12/12: How to Continue Energy Action

How to Continue Energy Action

Welcome to the twelfth and final installment of Sterling Ranch's crash course on energy! In this email, we'll discuss how you can build off of the information shared in this course to continue learning and taking action to support a clean energy future for your community.

Your Energy Crash Course in Review

Over the past 11 months, you hopefully learned a lot about how our energy system works and how you as a residential energy customer can take action to support a clean, modernizing grid.

Email 1 introduced you to the core tools for energy action that we have here at Sterling Ranch, and Email 2 provided basic background information on how our energy grid infrastructure operates.
Emails 3 and 4 provided an overview of how our community partners Xcel Energy and Copper Labs provide Sterling Ranch residents with an abundance of opportunities to participate in energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
Emails 5 and 6 shared information on where energy is used in the home and how targeted improvements to heating and cooling systems can unlock massive energy savings.
Email 7 provided information on what Sterling Ranch is doing to incorporate energy stewardship into its community design and development.
Email 8 shared information on Xcel Energy's energy efficiency programs, and Emails 9 and 10 provided background information on renewable energy topics as well as Xcel Energy's renewable energy programs.
Email 11 introduced the concept of electrification and provided a snapshot of what your home may look like in an electrifying world.

Here, in this 12th and final email, there isn't any more background information to be shared. Instead, this message is meant to remind you that you have the knowledge and tools necessary to go forward and take actions that can make meaningful changes in your community. It's true that energy systems can be complex to understand, but it's also true that you now know enough to make energy actions that you can be confident in, especially with the energy experts at Sterling Ranch's partners Xcel Energy and Copper Labs helping you along the way.

Xcel Energy Home Assessment Program

Though this email brings Sterling Ranch's crash course on energy to a close, your utility Xcel Energy has programs that can provide customers with direct support in understanding how to continue energy action.

Xcel Energy's Home Assessment program is a great tool to receive personalized advice on what forms of energy action make sense for you and your home. On the Usage tab in your Xcel Energy customer portal, scroll down and press the button labelled My Energy Portal to locate the Home Assessment program. This will bring you to a dashboard that gives you the option to create a personal savings plan by entering information about your home and your energy action goals. This feature makes it possible to contextualize what meaningful energy action looks like for your specific residence and is a great option to find additional guidance in your efforts to support a clean energy system!

The Next Step: Passing it On

It will be a group effort for our community to reach its energy goals. While energy action for residential energy customers occurs at the level of the individual, we need all hands on deck if we want to raise up the clean energy system that current and future generations deserve. Share what you've learned with your neighbors, and find community in the mission that Sterling Ranch residents are on together to push the boundaries of energy stewardship.

Final Tips for Energy Action

Join Xcel Energy's email list in your customer portal to stay up to date with new programs and guidance that your utility offers on energy action.
Long term energy efficiency requires staying vigilant about maintaining your home's building envelope as well as its mechanical systems and appliances over time. Schedule reminders in the future to prevent important maintenance projects from getting forgotten amongst everyday life.
Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about the many ways that they can take energy actions. Consider making energy action a shared project and finding support in each other for making sustainable changes to your energy habits.
Continue to learn about how you can be a good energy steward. Energy stewardship is a lifelong project, and there's always room to grow and change.