Looking for wind storage in homes
Currently Summerside is selling about 15 per cent of the energy from its wind turbines to New Brunswick, because there's no way to use all the electricity generated in the city. One factor is that the wind tends to blow more at night, when not as many people are using it.
At a recent council meeting, the city announced a new program asking homeowners to buy a special, ceramic space heater. The heaters use high-density bricks to store heat overnight that can be released to warm the house during the day.
City administrator Terry Murphy said the heaters are really no different than a furnace.
"The demand for the heat can be adjusted as you do today. In other words, you can set your thermostat at certain levels. It will be no different with this here," said Murphy.
But the heaters aren't cheap, about $2,000 each, so the city is offering a six-cent break on the first 2,500 kilowatt-hours as an incentive for those who buy them.
"We're looking at about $600 a year that could be beneficial to the consumer," said Murphy.
The city hopes the incentive will convince at least 100 homeowners to invest in one of the heaters in 2011.
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Power outage update: 252,596 remain without electricity Wednesday
EASTERN CAROLINA - Power is slowly being restored to Eastern Carolina residents after Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington on Friday, September 15.
On Monday, more than half a million people remained without power across the state.
As of Wednesday morning at 1am, the Dept. of Public Safety reports 252,596 total power outages in North Carolina.
More than half of those customers are in Eastern Carolina.
More than 32,000 customers are without power in Carteret County and roughly 21,000 are without power in Onslow County.
In Craven County, roughly 15,000 people remain without power Wednesday morning.
Many of the state's outages are effecting the Wilmington area,…
