What Can You Do to Prevent a Blackout?

(July 6) -- With temperatures soaring along the East Coast, it's hard to blame people for blasting the AC. But concerns about a blackout are running high as well.

On Aug. 14, 2003, a single outage caused more than 50 million people to lose power across the U.S. and Canada for more than four days. Even New York City's skyline was plunged into darkness. Fortunately, energy experts say there are ways to prevent such a massive power outage.

Michael Bryant, Philadelphia Inquirer / MCT

A boy stands in a Philadelphia fountain, seeking relief from the oppressive heat gripping the East Coast.

Here's a short list of small things all of us can do to help keep the juice flowing during the heat wave of 2010:

1. Chill out with the energy use. In such stifling heat, air conditioning is a must for many people, especially the very old and the very young, for whom a heat wave can become dangerous. But AC units suck up tons of energy from the grid, so if no one is home, turn off the air conditioning to save energy. And it may be good to avoid using other, non-essential appliances altogether. Chris Olert of Con Edison told AOL News today that dishwashers and laundry machines, along with air conditioners, are some of the biggest energy consumers in the home. "You might just wait to do your laundry," Olert said. In Toronto, the site of a major blackout this weekend, Mayor David Miller shared a tip on his Twitter feed: "... maybe tomorrow a bit less AC plz," he wrote.

2. Make sure the local utility company has trimmed the trees near power lines. Time magazine notes that the 2003 blackout began when power lines in Ohio began to sag from the weight of heavy use and fell on an unpruned tree branch, setting off a chain of power failures that left vast swaths of Americans without electricity.

3. Cut back on daylight use of high-energy-consuming appliances. Jeffrey Dagle, an electrical engineer from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who studied the 2003 blackout, told AOL News today that using the air conditioner only at night, during off-peak hours, may help prevent a large-scale blackout.

Beat the Heat:
Five Ways to Beat the Heat
Keep Pets From Overheating
How to Prevent a Blackout
Self Diagnose Heat Stroke

4. No flat-screen TVs please. It may seem like a good idea to turn the AC on high and sit in front of that big-screen plasma TV, but Con Ed's Olert warns that the sleek appliances are major energy hogs.

5. Take solace. Thanks to the bad economy, the risk of blackout may be lower than in previous years. "With our national recession, there are still a lot of vacant buildings and factories out there" that won't be consuming energy from the grid, Dagle said in a phone interview today.