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Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 1
By Solar energy | February 11, 2009
Simple Home Solar Energy’s Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 1
Welcome to this week’s Home Energy Conservation Challenge! If you’re here for the first time, you can find how this challenge works here.
We’ll start our challenge today with a grocery shopping analogy.
Image via Wikipedia
Imagine that you go to the grocery store every week, pick up all the food you want for your family and never question how much the food costs? You just pick up whatever you want, have it packed in eco-friendly grocery bags, and take it home. You do this every week. Then at the end of the month, you get a bill from the grocery store, telling you how much you owe them for the food you ate the previous four (4) weeks.
Of course not! But that’s how many of us buy electricity. We pay little, if any, attention to our energy consumption. We just wait for that monthly bill, it comes, and we pay it.
First, to control and/or reduce energy consumption we have to know how much you use.
Today, we start the conservation challenge with the basics:
• reading an electric bill,
• find out how much you pay per kilowatt-hour (or per gallon if applicable),and
• start a tracking system for monthly energy use
Note: The electric utility bill above is not very clear. I’m working on making it better. If you click on the picture it will open in a window giving you a better view.
Electricity is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). You can see from the statement pictured above that this home used (and is charged for) 2350 kWh of electricity between 12/25/07 and 01/24/08.
This particular bill covers a period of 30 days (blue arrow). (12/25/07 through 01/24/08)
By dividing the kWh used (yellow arrow) by 30 (days), we determine the average kWh used per day. In this case, 78.3 kWh per day is the average.
Notice the bill pictured above does not tell us how much the customer paid per kilowatt-hour (kWh). In this case the customer must calculate this himself. Simple math, amount of bill divided by number of kWh used, will tell how much this customer is charged per kWh. For example: $200.23 ÷ 2350 = $0.0852. This customer pays just over .08¢ per kWh.
A note about the electric bill in our example: This particular energy provider is an energy cooperative, meaning the cooperative buys energy from an electric utility company at wholesale prices and resells this energy to the co-operative customers.
The cooperative customers pay a monthly rental fee of $20 for their electric meter.
However, this $20 fee is not shown on the monthly statement! A cursory glance makes it appear the amount of the bill is for the kilowatt-hours used only.
In order for this customer to confirm how much they actually pay per kilowatt-hour, they must know to subtract the $20 meter rental fee from the bill amount before calculating cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Each company’s monthly statements will vary.
Take action:
1. Take out last year’s electric (or other energy) bills (2008 in this case).
2. Learn to read your bill if you’ve never done this before. If you have any questions, call your energy provider. They are happy to answer your questions. Make sure there are no hidden fees unexplained on your bill.
3. Write down your energy used in kilowatt-hours (not what you paid, since costs per kWh change) for each month in 2008. (Use this simple excel sheet if you want or make your own tracking system)
4. As you receive each month’s electric bill, write down the amount of your energy use (or enter in the excel sheet provided) and compare your current use to the same month in 2008.
Note: the excel sheet provided has four (5) named sheets. One sheet each for “kilowatt-hours,” “propane,” “heating oil,” “water,” and “kill-a-watt meter.” Choose the correct sheet for measuring each type of energy source. I realize water is not an energy source but those of you who pay a fee for water usage may want to begin tracking that as well.
OK. That’s all for this week. Take the action steps. You are on your way!
Share your questions and comments in the comment section.
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Topics: Home Energy Conservation Challenge | 2 Comments »
March 7th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Since I have recently moved to another area of the country to a house with more square footage – I am starting the challenge with January 2009 kilowatt hours and will have to go from there.
March 11th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Thanks for sharing, Myra!
That’s a good way to begin since you are new to your home. The only way, if you are the first to live in the house.
If your house had previous occupants, your energy provider should be able to tell you what the previous occupants paid last year.
But either way, by beginning now you are on the right track.