TXU Energy Says ‘No Sweat’ to Hot Summer Days with New Online Energy Activities, Lessons and Tips Specially Designed for Kids

With schools letting out for summer across the state, parents, teachers and camp counselors may be looking for free options to keep kids’ minds active when they come inside to cool off from the afternoon heat that is getting hotter every day…  One new option is www.txu.com/kidspower. It’s a free collection of videos, quizzes, activities, lesson plans and curriculum that offer kids fun, easy ways to learn about energy – like how to defeat the “energy thieves” that can drain electricity at home even when some electrical appliances are turned off, watching household items mysteriously spring to life to save energy and money via the magic of stop motion photography, making a solar oven out of a pizza box, conducting a kids’ home energy audit at home and other ideas.

TXU Energy Says ‘No Sweat’ to Hot Summer Days with New Online Energy Activities, Lessons and Tips Specially Designed for Kids

New hub shares videos, interactive activities and good energy habits for children across Texas    

      DALLAS – May 29, 2012 – Don’t sweat the afternoon heat this summer. That’s what TXU Energy says to parents, summer school teachers, camp counselors and more than 6 million children living in Texas who are likely to retreat indoors when the summer’s afternoon temperatures make it uncomfortable — or just plain too hot — to play outside.  The company launched a free online resource for kids via txu.com/kidspower that provides videos, activities and other fun ways to learn about conserving electricity and saving money this summer and all year long

      The new energy activity hub for kids shares bright ideas for kids about electricity and conservation. It includes videos showing simple ways to save energy and money at home, a number of riddles, puzzles and quizzes and an at-home energy audit for kids to help them find out just where families are wasting electricity around the house. It includes curriculum about solar energy, lesson plans for teachers or parents and a number of interactive activities. It also provides a how-to guide for building a solar oven out of a pizza box and science fair project ideas.

“Finding activities and games that my kids can play indoors is a necessity in the Texas summer heat,” said Holly Homer, Dallas-area mom blogger who partially home schools her three boys during the school year.  “My main goal during the summer is to keep the kids active and wear them out, but there will be days that are just too hot for outside activities.  If I can find things to do indoors that sneak in a little learning, it is a bonus.”

According to the ERCOT Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for summer 2012, the weather in Texas will be warmer and drier than the 15-year historical average but less extreme than 2011. And, if ERCOT calls for conservation during summer afternoons this year, TXU Energy advocates using an unplugged, fully charged laptop or tablet device to access the online activities during peak electricity consumption hours between 3 and 7 p.m. For more energy savings tips, go to txu.com/tips.