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7 Ways to Reduce Home Energy Costs

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MISSION, Kan., March 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — (Family Features) When building your budget, utility bills – especially the electric bill – are likely one of your largest monthly expenditures. One of the biggest culprits: home heating and cooling, which account for more than half of the average American household’s annual energy consumption, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration.

In fact, 83% of homeowners are concerned about the impact of energy bills on their household budgets, according to a survey conducted by Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US (METUS), with 54% saying it cost “somewhat more” or “much more” to heat their homes this winter compared to last year.

To help dial down your energy costs, consider these tips from the heating and cooling experts at METUS.

Adjust the Temperature

While you’re sleeping or away from home, adjust your thermostat up 5-10 F in the summer or down 5-10 F in the winter, which can help lower annual heating and cooling costs if done consistently. A smart thermostat can monitor your energy use and behaviors then automatically adjust to make your home more energy efficient.

Look for Incentives and Rebates

Qualified homeowners may be eligible to save money on qualified home energy improvement projects. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) offers tax credits and rebates, including a credit of 30% (up to $2,000) for qualifying heat pump installation, an energy-efficient option to replace fossil fuel-burning furnaces. Other incentives under the IRA include offsetting costs of electrical panel upgrades and rebates for homes with energy usage reductions of 20% or more.

Switch to a Heat Pump

Among survey respondents, 54% ranked government incentives like the IRA as one of the top reasons they would consider installing a heat pump to replace a traditional air conditioner. Options like Mitsubishi Electric’s all-climate heat pumps use two units – an exterior heat pump, which replaces your existing air conditioning condenser, and an interior unit installed on your furnace – to deliver cost-effective, eco-efficient, year-round heating and cooling. These smart systems not only improve air conditioning efficiency on hot days, but also determine the best source of heat (gas or electricity) on cold days, so your HVAC system is always running at peak efficiency and comfort.

Have HVAC Systems Serviced Regularly

For best performance and efficiency, regular maintenance of your heating and cooling system is imperative. Keeping outdoor units free of debris and changing air filters are tasks most homeowners can handle on their own but bringing in a professional – usually in the spring and fall – can help ensure your HVAC system and all its components, including electrical and ductwork, are functioning properly.

Improve Your Insulation

Poorly insulated attics, walls, ceilings, floors and crawl spaces can lead to energy waste and increase costs by requiring more energy to heat or cool your home. Because air can escape through these spaces when your HVAC system pushes air through your home, adding insulation can help reduce losses and keep your home more comfortable.

Use Appliances During Non-Peak Hours

Rather than using your oven, stove or clothes dryer from noon-6 p.m., peak time for many electricity providers, consider doing so in the morning or later at night. Using these appliances outside of the peak timeframe, when conventional heating and cooling systems are often running full bore, can help lower energy costs. Some utilities may also offer plans that incentivize limiting energy use during peak hours.

Think Multi-Zone

Consider upgrading to an all-climate, multi-zone heat pump, which can seamlessly connect to multiple indoor units, revolutionizing the way you experience comfort in your home. By eliminating problematic hot and cold spots in your home, this system ensures personalized comfort tailored to individual zones and optimizes energy usage by directing it only to the areas requiring heating or cooling. Replacing an outdated HVAC system with a multi-zone solution can also help achieve cost and energy savings. By efficiently managing temperature in different zones, you can experience improved energy efficiency, resulting in a more sustainable and economical solution for heating and cooling.

Find more solutions for improving your home’s efficiency and increasing energy savings at MitsubishiComfort.com.

Michael French
mfrench@familyfeatures.com
1-888-824-3337
editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate

A leading source for high-quality food, lifestyle and home and garden content, Family Features provides readers with topically and seasonally relevant tips, takeaways, information, recipes, videos, infographics and more. Find additional articles and information at Culinary.net and eLivingToday.com.

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Air and Fathom5 Partner to Modernize Naval Fleet Readiness

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ARLINGTON, Va. and AUSTIN, Texas, July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air, the leader in Enterprise Readiness, and Fathom5, a technology company dedicated to secure infrastructure for AI-powered machines, today announced a strategic partnership to transform the U.S. Navy’s maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capabilities.

The collaboration follows Fathom5’s selection as a winner in the Defense Innovation Unit’s NextMRO Prize Challenge Phase III, which aims to replace antiquated, siloed logistics frameworks with integrated, data-driven software. Fathom5 won based on its ability to transform real-world Navy data into intuitive, sailor-facing applications at the tactical edge.

To scale this solution for enterprise-wide Navy procurement, Fathom5 and Air are uniting Fathom5’s industry-leading, warship-deployed Condition-Based Maintenance AI with Air’s Enterprise Readiness platform. Air’s platform is purpose-built to close the “Readiness Gap”—the dangerous chasm between what the front line needs and what the enterprise delivers. It fuses predictive analytics, supply chain visibility, and repair cycle forecasting into a unified system that operates across Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot maintenance.

Together, the companies will address the Navy’s most critical sustainment vulnerabilities with the ability to:

Eliminate data silos and provide a single, authoritative source of truth.Use natural language to query technical manuals, analyze parts availability, proactively forecast issues, and identify alternative vendors in seconds, andAllow forward-deployed Sailors to execute work orders offline in Degraded, Denied, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) environments.

Proven Defense Impact

Air brings a successful track record of optimization across the Department of War. In recent sustainment operations, Air delivered a 99.6% reduction in part identification time, identifying replacement parts and suitable substitutes in minutes instead of days. By accelerating part allocation and replacing manual processes, the platform has saved commands hundreds of down days annually while sustaining 90% equipment readiness across echelons.

“This partnership will be pivotal as we work to close the Readiness Gap,” said Tara Murphy Dougherty, CEO of Air. “Together, Fathom5 and Air are uniquely positioned to accelerate Naval logistics by drastically shortening turnaround times, maximizing asset availability, and executing modern digital workflows at the speed of operational demand.”

“The future of naval readiness depends on giving Sailors the right information at the right time, wherever the mission takes them,” said Zac Staples, Founder and CEO of Fathom5. “By combining Fathom5’s AI-powered Condition-Based Maintenance capabilities with Air’s Enterprise Readiness platform, we’re helping transform maintenance from a reactive process into a predictive, data-driven advantage. Together, we’re enabling a more resilient fleet that can sustain operations in contested environments while keeping more ships mission-ready.”

About Fathom5

Fathom5, headquartered in Austin, Texas, develops secure digital infrastructure and advanced actuator technologies that strengthen the resilience and readiness of complex industrial systems. The company has achieved significant milestones, including delivering the first program-of-record artificial intelligence system deployed aboard a U.S. Navy warship and securing 17 patents across actuator technology and cybersecurity. Through its flagship Nsyte platform, Fathom5 provides secure edge infrastructure for maintenance and readiness applications, enabling advanced analytics and actionable insights at the point of need.  For more information, please visit www.fathom5.com.

About Air

Air, formerly Govini, created Enterprise Readiness, a new category of AI-native systems that close the Readiness Gap, the dangerous chasm between what the front line needs and what the national security enterprise can deliver. Air Enterprise Readiness platform aligns development, production, delivery, and sustainment into one coordinated execution system, revealing true capacity, exposing real constraints, coordinating critical resources, and executing at the speed of operational demands.The result: the national security enterprise has what it needs to succeed. For more information on Air and the Enterprise Readiness platform, visit www.air.ai.

Media Contacts

Fathom5: coleman@zilkermedia.com

Air: media@air.ai and air@weareinvariant.com

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SOURCE Air

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DoubleLine Paper: Honebuto Shock: Japan Courts a Truss-Like Redux

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TAMPA, Fla., July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sell-offs in Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) and the yen have put Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on notice, a DoubleLine paper argues, that Japan’s creditors have little tolerance for her government’s unorthodox proposal for a mixture of unfunded fiscal expansion with docile central-banking. 

Surveying the “Honebuto shock,” so-named after debt-and-yen sell-off following Tokyo’s annual fiscal policy statement, Bill Campbell, head of the DoubleLine’s Global Sovereign & Emerging Markets team, sees parallels to the gilts and British pound revolt over a 2022 proposal for unfunded fiscal expansion by U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss that swiftly brought down her government.

“Having committed to more than 370 trillion yen of public-private investment through fiscal 2040, the government is calling for monetary policy “in coordination with” that growth agenda,” Mr. Campbell writes. “In the eyes of the financial markets, this demand for the subordination of monetary policy to a political platform only adds fuel to the fire beneath a central bank already under criticism for what critics deem an overly cautious rate-hiking path.”

Mr. Campbell warns, “The Takaichi government should not assume the JGB market, having found its voice, will prove more patient than the gilts market that laid low the Truss government in 2022. In today’s inflationary climate, fiscal credibility is earned, not presumed – even in the G-7 countries. And a G-7 sovereign who embarks on unfunded fiscal expansion risks courting a buyers’ strike.”

The paper, titled “Honebuto Shock: Japan Courts a Truss-Like Redux,” is available here: https://doubleline.com/wp-content/uploads/DoubleLine_Honebuto-Truss-Redux_Campbell_071526.pdf

Mr. Campbell heads the Global Sovereign & Emerging Markets team at DoubleLine and serves as the lead Portfolio Manager for emerging markets and international fixed-income strategies. He is a permanent member of the firm’s Fixed Income Asset Allocation Committee. Mr. Campbell has written extensively in research papers and client briefings on evolving trends and episodic developments in global fixed income and currency markets. He holds a B.S. in Business Economics and International Business, as well as a B.A. in English, from Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. in Mathematics, with a focus on Mathematical Finance, from Boston University.

About the Global Sovereign & Emerging Markets Team

The Global Sovereign & Emerging Markets team at DoubleLine manages $XX billion in assets in sovereign debt, including U.S. Treasuries and non-U.S. sovereign issues, and corporate fixed income securities by issuers domiciled in ex-U.S. developed and emerging markets. The team comprises 14 investment professionals, including portfolio managers, analysts and traders.

About DoubleLine

DoubleLine Capital LP is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. DoubleLine’s offices can be reached by telephone at (813) 791-7333 or by email at info@doubleline.com. In addition to its headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and an office in Los Angeles, DoubleLine has offices in Dubai, London and Tokyo. Media can reach DoubleLine by email at media@doubleline.com.

DoubleLine® is a registered trademark of DoubleLine Capital LP. 

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SOURCE DoubleLine

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Signeasy expands beyond eSignatures with Intelligent Contract Management for growing businesses

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The platform combines eSignatures, AI-powered contract insights, renewal tracking, and a centralized contract repository to help businesses manage contracts from signature to renewal.

DALLAS, July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Signeasy today announced its Intelligent Contract Management platform, extending its product capabilities into every stage of the contract lifecycle. The platform gives Finance, Legal, Sales, HR, Procurement, and Operations teams one place to sign, manage, and get insights from every contract.

For most growing businesses, the real work starts after a contract is signed. Renewal dates, payment terms, obligations, and key clauses end up scattered across inboxes, shared drives, and spreadsheets. Without a large legal operations team, keeping track of them is manual, reactive work.

Signeasy’s Intelligent Contract Management platform closes this gap. It brings eSignatures, a contract repository, and contract intelligence into one platform.

“Contracts touch every part of a business — Finance, Legal, Sales, HR, Procurement, Operations — but the tools to effectively manage them have always been built for enterprise legal teams. We built Intelligent Contract Management so lean teams get the same contract visibility and intelligence as companies five times their size.”

— Sunil Patro, Founder & CEO, Signeasy

Signeasy’s Intelligent Contract Management platform includes:

Centralized Contract Repository: Store every executed contract in one searchable place — no digging through inboxes or shared drives.Conversational AI search: Ask questions about any contract in plain language, follow-up, and get answers with context instead of reviewing documents manually. Customer data is never used to train AI models.Key Term Extraction: Surface payment terms, renewal dates, obligations, and termination clauses instantly.Renewal Tracking and Alerts: Get automated reminders before contracts expire or auto-renew, so commitments never catch teams by surprise.Team Workspaces: Share visibility into contract status, with confidentiality controls for every team that touches contracts.eSignatures: Collect legally binding signatures from anywhere, on any device, and automate approval workflows to get contracts signed faster.

There’s no six-month implementation cycle. Businesses can bulk import existing contracts and onboard teams within hours with hands-on support from Signeasy.

Signeasy’s Intelligent Contract Management platform is available now. Visit www.signeasy.com to request a demo.

About Signeasy

Signeasy is an Intelligent Contract Management (ICM) platform built for growing businesses managing contracts across Finance, Legal, Sales, HR, Procurement, and Operations. Teams can prepare, sign, track, and manage contracts from one platform, with AI-powered workflows, integrations for Microsoft, Google, and HubSpot, and enterprise-grade security and compliance. Over 48,000 businesses globally use Signeasy to cut contract cycle times, reduce risk, accelerate revenue, and drive better business outcomes.

Media contact
Dhivya Venkatesan
Signeasy
Email: dhivyav@signeasy.com

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