Frank Krisle liked his home energy audit and free electricity-saving kit — which came with compact fluorescent lightbulbs and other gear — so much that he took it to church with him.
He thrust the utility-supplied items upon his Sunday school class at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in East Nashville in a bit of secular proselytizing.
"There's a lot of energy-saving things people can do that a lot of people don't realize," said Krisle, 71.
The energy efficiency devotee is just what the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity through more than 150 distributors, wants to see: ratepayers taking part in the "do-it-yourself" audits and spreading the word to reduce energy use.
Customers get the free kit after completing the audit. (Complete it online at http://www.tva.com/ or call TVA's toll-free number, 1-800-663-1835, to request one.)
If all the 23,000 customers in the Tennessee Valley who have done audits so far this year used all the items in their kits, about 13.8 million pounds of global-warming-related carbon dioxide could be saved annually, according to Nashville Electric Service, one of TVA's distributors.
The customers, also, could each reduce their electric bills by $24-$48 a year.
Following an audit's recommendations could save hundreds of dollars or more on a bill each year and mean much larger decreases in the airborne carbon that comes mainly from coal-fired power plants.
Krisle's audit report that he got back "within one hour" of filling out a form online shows that about 70 percent — or $1,575 — of his annual electric bill goes for heating and cooling. A high efficiency heat pump, it said, could reduce that by about $370 a year.
Krisle, owner of an electrical contracting firm, had taken advantage of a TVA program in the 1980s — also available through NES and other distributors — that provided more detailed home energy audits done by professionals and helped homeowners install insulation, solar water heaters and other conservation measures.
Krisle sees the audit and kit as a good way everyone can save money, and said he intends to put in a new heat pump when he's able.
"I've used the light bulbs. I've used the filter whistle," Krisle said. A round, plastic whistle comes with the kit to alert when a filter needs changing, to save energy and money. He put it on the filter in the return air duct in his home.
"It works," he said. "When that filter gets dirty, it barely sounds — and then, as days go by, it gets louder.
"The first time, you don't know what it is."
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