By Samantha Vercellino
Last Tuesday, the Rock Church Wellspring Seniors Group gobbled up eggs and pancakes while learning how to slash their utility bills by CUB experts.
The Outreach Team was asked to join the group’s monthly breakfast by John and Mavis Readman of Rockford who have been CUB members for 30 years.
During breakfast, the couple sat down with Environmental Outreach Coordinator Laura Goldberg who helped them see they had gotten themselves into some bad deals with their alternative electric and gas supply company, IGS.
While IGS and ComEd have similar electric rates, the couple was paying an $8.59 monthly additional transmission fee for the electricity. For gas, John and Mavis were paying 24 cents more than they would be with Nicor Gas—the regulated utility. Laura showed the two that they would have saved $82 if they would have chosen the regulated utilities as their suppliers instead.
(To see details on all alternative electric and gas supply offers, check out CUB’s fact sheets. ComEd customers can click here, Ameren here, Nicor here, and Peoples/North Shore Gas here.)
Laura also taught them that energy efficiency programs like CUB Energy Saver, a free online service, can help them cut their home energy costs even more. The money-saving tool provides users with personalized tips to potentially cut their power bills by hundreds of dollars a year.
As a token of their appreciation, John and Mavis treated Laura and the other CUB staffers to a delicious Denny’s breakfast—and asked them come back and see them again soon!
If you are part of a large group that would like CUB to come out, please email Sarah Moskowitz, at [email protected], or call 312-263-4282.
