Con Edison Crews Mobilized For First Heat of the Summer

Con Edison is ready to respond to any service problems that arise due to the high temperatures forecasted to hit the area through Saturday.

The company urges customers to use energy wisely as they take steps to stay safe and comfortable.

Heat, humidity and increased demand for electricity to power air conditioners can cause cables to overheat and lead to outages. The coming days could also bring thunderstorms, which can affect the overhead delivery system and cause outages.

The company urges members of the public to stay away from any wires that are downed during storms. Call your local police department or 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633) to report downed wires.

Con Edison may assign workers to guard downed wires and keep people and pets away from them. These workers may be in unmarked vehicles but they carry Con Edison identification.

How to Report an Outage

Con Edison will send text messages to customers in areas expected to be most impacted, reminding them to be prepared and to report an outage by simply replying OUT to the text. Customers can sign up for text alerts at coned.com/text.

Customers can also report outages and check service restoration status at conEd.com/reportoutage, with Con Edison’s mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633).

The company also sends e-mails to customers to communicate energy-saving tips and information on reporting outages.

Customers who report outages will receive updates from Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available. Information on outages and restoration times is also available at the Con Edison outage map. Watch an outage map tutorial video here.

Energy-Saving Tips

New Yorkers can stay cool and save all summer by following these money-saving conservation tips:

• If you are running your air conditioner, close off unoccupied rooms. If you are using the AC in your living room and nobody is in the bedrooms, close the doors to those rooms;
• Set your air conditioner to the highest comfortable temperature. Every degree you lower the thermostat increases costs;
• To reduce heat and moisture in your home, run appliances such as ovens, washing machines, dryers and dishwashers in the early morning or late at night when it’s cooler outside;
• When the AC is running, close doors to keep cool air in and hot air out;
• Keep shades, blinds and curtains closed. About 40 percent of unwanted heat comes through windows;
• Even when using AC, use ceiling and other fans to provide additional cooling and better circulation;
• Turn off AC units, lights and other appliances when not at home and use a timer to turn on your air conditioner about a half-hour before arriving home;
• If you run a business, keep the door closed while running the AC.
• Keep AC filters clean.

Replacing an old air conditioner with a new ENERGY STAR unit can reduce energy usage by 30 percent.

Con Edison offers additional energy savings tips.

Energy Efficiency Programs

The company also urges customers to look into its energy efficiency programs. Customers can get incentives for making energy-saving upgrades to their lighting, HVAC and other equipment.

For this summer, Con Edison is offering residential customers a $50 discount for buying an eligible smart thermostat and another $85 for registering it with Con Edison’s Bring Your Own Thermostat (BYOT) Program. Con Edison is also offering residential customers a $1,000 rebate to weatherize their home with new air sealing and proper insulation.

Con Edison is offering incentives for commercial and industrial customers. They include cash incentives for installing high-efficiency, ultra-low temperature freezers, lighting incentives, and instant rebates for new natural gas and electric food service equipment.

Small and medium-size businesses can get a free, no-obligation energy assessment of their facility. Con Edison will pay about 50 percent of the cost for qualified lighting, HVAC, refrigeration and gas upgrades. Con Edison is also offering financing with rates as low as zero percent and no money down for eligible energy-efficiency upgrades.

Owners of multi-family buildings can also get energy efficiency incentives. Those include:

• Rebates for installing energy efficient gas and electric equipment in Affordable and Market Rate buildings; 
• Additional bonus rebates for upgrading equipment in eligible Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods. 

Customers can follow Con Edison on Twitter or Facebook for general outage updates, safety tips and storm preparation information.