Capital Credit Checks

$52,357.44 is the amount of equity from 1985 which the cooperative will be refunding back to the members in the month of December this year. Over the past 25 years your Cooperative has paid back over $2,300,000 to member/owners who provided us with equity.

For the past 15 years or so we’ve made checks available and handed them out at our Christmas Open House. However, the printing, mailing and administrative cost of handling all these checks adds up so in an effort to cut some of these costs we’re planning to credit current members’ capital credit refunds to their November electric bills which you will receive the first few days in December, therefore CHECKS WILL NOT BE HANDED OUT AT OUR CHRISTIMAS OPEN HOUSE ON DECEMBER 7 & 8, 2006. Instead, you will see a line item credit on your electric bill stating the amount being subtracted from your bill. Only those current members who were also members in 1985 will see this refund. Those of you who became members after 1985 and did not provide any equity in that year will not receive a refund. Past members of 1985 who have moved away and are no longer members will still be mailed a check for their share of equity in the month of December. We hope this change will beneficial to both you and your cooperative!

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There are many things to think about when deciding if one should replace a heating system. In today’s market, with fossil fuels as high as they are, one should look to their electric cooperative for money saving solutions. The rate for off-peak electric is very attractive.

You may have an old furnace that you know is not giving you the efficiencies that newer models can give. On the other hand, LP and fuel oil furnaces would only serve as a back-up heat source on an Off-Peak Electric Program. How often would this furnace run per year if you’re on the Dual Fuel Program with North Itasca Electric?

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Dryers do not require the use of an energy guide label, but this does not mean they don’t use a lot of electricity. The dryer comes in as the second highest electricity-using appliance after the refrigerator.

Most dryers use heating coils to supply heat, and they operate on 240 volt current which is twice the strength of a ordinary household current. The energy efficiency of a clothes dryer is measured by “the Energy Factor,” or pounds of clothing per kilowatt-hour of electricity. The energy factor for a standard capacity dryer is 3.01 and the minimum for a gas dryer is 2.67 kilowatt-hours. When purchasing a dryer you should look for the highest energy factor number, if the dryer happens to have an energy factor tag.