As you may already know, we are due for very cold and potentially dangerous winter weather for much of the TVEC service area over the coming days.
TVEC personnel have been hard at work making preparations for the cold, as well as the possibility of outages caused by accumulated ice or snow on trees and power lines.
With the possibility of widespread power outages, TVEC crews, contractors and tree crews are standing by and prepared to take care of any and all problems as quickly as possible.
Be Prepared
Winter weather, which can cause widespread tree damage, can result in particularly time consuming outage restoration. While we hope our area escapes with few outages, the possibility exists for extensive and prolonged outages if ice buildup occurs.
Report power outages at 800-967-9324 or through TVEC Outage Texting.
You can follow outage restoration progress in the outage center here on the website.
A few notes on energy usage
Heating can take up a tremendous amount of energy as your heater works to make up 40 degrees or more from outside temperature. Please be safe and only use space heaters as needed for room heating. Running multiple space heaters uses more energy than you might imagine, and can cause a shock on your electric bill. There are also safety risks with space heaters, please be careful.
Even efficient heat pumps can start to rely on heat-strip “Aux” or “Emergency” heat. That acts as a space heater for your whole house. We have seen some people recommending switching to Aux or Emergency heat on your unit due to the cold, but that is not generally good information. Follow the recommendations in your unit’s instruction manual for most efficient operation. For most units, the “Emergency Heat” setting is only for use when the heat pump is not operating at all. See more information on heat pumps here.
Everybody be safe out there and, of course, look out for neighbors and pets!
