How Much Energy Do Conservation Measures Save?

While the advantages of using solar panels on your home are many, getting there is a 3-phase process.
1.    Conservation
2.    Efficiency Measures
3.    Add Solar panels

Our family’s goal to focus on phase-one, conservation practices, for one year is over. We began the implementation of conservation practices (not efficiency measures) one year ago, in August 2008.

What we wanted to know was just how much energy (and money) we could save by conservation practices alone. Having received our July electric bill, we are able to calculate the numbers for the year.

Our home energy use, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) decreased by 22.7 percent over a twelve-month period, August 2008 – July 2009.

According to our energy provider, we used 30 percent fewer kilowatt-hours (kWh) than the average home in our area.

The electricity savings in monetary terms is just shy of $500 for the twelve-month period.

Interested in reducing your electric bill? Or reducing your carbon footprint? Or making solar panels more affordable?

Start with conservation measures.

Home Energy Conservation Challenge –

Follow Up

Here’s a follow-up tip for those of you who completed or are currently working the Energy Challenge.

Note: If you are here for the first time, you can find how this challenge works here. Please join in and begin reducing your electric bills today!

If you have taken the action steps explained in the previous six (6) weeks of the Energy Challenge, you know or have these things:

1.    How many kilowatt-hours your home used last year
2.    The average kilowatt-hours used per month last year
3.    A tracking excel sheet to track kilowatt-hour usage
4.    Home much your refrigerator uses (measured by your Kill-A-Watt meter)
5.    A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible
6.    A water heater efficiently heating water when YOU decide you need it
7.    A heating/cooling system set to automatically raise and lower your home temperature settings to accommodate your family’s lifestyle and comfort—and reduce your electric bill
8.    A power strip eliminating phantom loads that add to your electric bill
9.    Energy efficient home lighting
10.  Invisible air leaks closed and sealed

When you’ve accomplished these tasks, give yourself a pat on the back! And when you’re next electric bill comes, compare it to the same time period last year. You will be amazed at the energy savings.

Now here’s a final energy saving action to boost you to the next level.

Get a professional home energy audit. Here’s how.

Call your local energy provider and ask if they do home energy audits for their customers. Most do. But if not, hire a home energy professional to evaluate your home. You energy provider should be able to suggest someone.

A home energy auditor thoroughly evaluates how much energy your home uses, then suggests steps you can take to improve the efficiency of your particular home.

Your auditor will most likely cover items you have already addressed in this energy challenge. But a personal auditor can assess things like attic and wall insulation, windows, heating/cooling units, appliances, etc., that apply to the particulars of your home.

So call your energy provider today and request a home energy audit.

A word to the wise:

When you call your energy provider, be polite. They are accustomed to complaining people calling to grouse about their energy bill. Customer service employees are trained to screen calls to determine who is just complaining and who really wants to take some responsibility for their own home.

So be patient with the customer service representative who takes your call. Answer all their questions courteously. Tell them all you have done to improve what you know to improve but that you want a thorough home energy audit to learn where you can improve your home’s energy efficiency.

Thanks again for joining the energy challenge!

Leave a comment and let me know how this works for you.

Welcome to the final week, week 6, of the Home Energy Conservation Challenge! If you’re here for the first time, you can find how this challenge works here.

If you have taken the action steps explained in the previous five (5) weeks of the Energy Challenge, you know or have these things:

1.    How many kilowatt-hours your home used last year
2.    The average kilowatt-hours used per month last year
3.    A tracking excel sheet to track kilowatt-hour usage,
4.    Home much energy your refrigerator uses (measured by your Kill-A-Watt meter)
5.    A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible
6.    A water heater efficiently heating water when YOU decide you need it
7.    A heating/cooling system set to automatically raise and lower your home temperature settings to accommodate your family’s lifestyle and comfort—and reduce your electric bill.
8.    A power strip eliminating phantom loads that add to your electric bill
Let’s get started with our final week, week six (6).

Small, imperceptible things add up.

Think about it.

A couple cookies, a few French fries, and those lazy hours spent surfing the net. Once a month a few cookies and fries and a lazy hour probably do not matter too much to your general health.
But daily, these little habits can add up to excess body fat.

Small decisions, small habits, accumulate to form a lifestyle.

Choices add up. Like rungs of a ladder, they take us somewhere.

This week you will conquer the imperceptible energy leaks. Although seemingly insignificant, these small energy tweaks accumulate to save you energy dollars.

• Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)
• Windows and doors
• Electrical outlets and switch plates

Switch to Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)

Most likely, you have been using incandescent light bulbs in your lamps and lighting fixtures at home.

These bulbs produce light by passing an electric current through a thin filament. The filament, when heated with electric current, produces light.

However, a shocking 90 percent of the energy produced by an incandescent light bulb is given off as heat, not light.

Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) reduce your home’s demand for electricity.

EnergyStar rated Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) produce 75% less heat than incandescent light bulbs to produce the same amount of light. They also last up to 10 times longer than incandescent.

EnergyStar rated CFLs can save up to $30 in electricity costs over the lifetime of the bulb. Recycle your CFLs at your local Home Depot or check Earth 911 for a recycling center near you.

The EnergyStar site offers a helpful article about how to match the right CFL to the proper fixture. Here are the bullet points from their site:

• CFLs perform best in open fixtures that allow airflow, such as table and floor lamps, wall sconces, pendants, and outdoor fixtures.
• For recessed fixtures, it is better to use a reflector CFL than a spiral CFL since the design of the reflector evenly distributes the light down to your task area.
• If a light fixture is connected to a dimmer or three-way socket fixture, you’ll need to use a special ENERGY STAR qualified CFL designed to work in these applications. Make sure to look for CFLs that specify use with dimmers or three-way fixtures.
• To choose the ENERGY STAR qualified CFL with the right amount of light, find a qualified CFL that is labeled as equivalent to the incandescent bulb you are replacing. Light bulb manufacturers include this information right on the product packaging to make it easy for consumers to choose the equivalent bulb. Common terms include “Soft White 60” or “60 Watt Replacement.

CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury, so here’s what to do if you happen to break a CFL. Follow these guidelines to dispose of them properly.

Caulk windows and doors and other small air leaks

Would you leave a window open when your heating or cooling system is running? Of course not!
But consider this: ignoring those little cracks and leaks in your house is the same as leaving a window open wide. Added together, those small leaks become one giant leak.

The folks at Home Depot say that tiny cracks account for up to 20 percent of the energy used to heat and cool a typical home. So, by caulking, sealing up those tiny cracks, your energy costs are reduced by 20 percent.

Here’s where to look for these pesky leaks in your home:

•    Around doors
•    Around windows
•    Dryer vents
•    Faucet pipes and wires
•    Hot water heating pipes

If you’ve never done this before it’s really not that hard. If you have a handyman-type living at your house you’re in luck. If not, the easiest thing to do is visit your local home improvement store—like Home Depot—and ask for help in choosing the caulk that works for your particular home.

Weather Strip around doors and windows

Weatherstripping around doors and windows keeps air leaks sealed around the movable joints. Even a 1/8-inch-wide crack around the door is sucking dollars from your pocket. If you can feel air coming in around your closed door then you definitely need weatherstipping.

There are various types of weatherstripping—again, ask your local Home Depot for help—to accommodate different situations, doors, and windows.

Also, the U.S. Department of Energy Consumer’s Guide gives helpful information about weatherstripping selections for particular uses.

Install gaskets behind cover plates on electrical outlets

This little trick was a new one for me. I had never heard of gaskets for electric outlet cover plates until this year.

Simple to install, these foam inserts create a seal around your electrical outlet.

Home energy auditors recommend installing these behind your cover plates on your outside walls. Seems the air in your attic communicates with the air in your house via holes cut for your electrical outlet.

Who knew?

Here’s a photo of a foam insulation gasket.

Purchase a package of these at your local Home Depot (or other home improvement store).

Besides keeping that cold attic are from seeping into your house in winter there’s another small but appreciated benefit from these little jewels.

They keep the attic dust from seeping into your house and landing on your furniture! Very cool!

Take Action:

1.    As your incandescent bulbs need replacing, them with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)
2.    Caulk your windows, doors and other small leaks
3.    Weatherstip your windows and doors
4.    Purchase and install foam insulation gasket around your electrical outlets and switch plates that are on the outside walls of your home
5.    Make a note on your excel sheet the date you install these changes

Continue to document your kilowatt-hour consumption monthly on your excel sheet and watch your energy consumption and electric bill decrease.
Thanks for participating! I would love to know how these conservation tips work for you. Feel free to share your results in the comment section.

Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 5

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.

If you have implemented the simple, quick, action steps explained in the previous four (4) weeks of the Energy Challenge, you know or have these things:

1. How many kilowatt-hours your home used last year
2. The average kilowatt-hours used per month last year
3. A tracking excel sheet to track kilowatt-hour usage,
4. Home much energy your refrigerator uses (measured by your Kill-A-Watt meter)
5. A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible
6. A water heater efficiently heating water when YOU decide you need it
7. A heating/cooling system set to automatically raise and lower your home temperature settings to accommodate your family’s lifestyle and comfort—and reduce your electric bill.

This week we talk about phantom loads.

Sometimes called “standby power,” phantom load is a term which defines the electric power used by electronic devices or appliances while turned “off” or in “standby mode.”

Examples of devices pulling phantom loads include:

• VCRs/DVD players
• televisions
• stereos
• computers
• cordless phones
• coffee pots
• cell phone and camera chargers

The easy way to eliminate phantom loads is to simply unplug any unused devices. However, depending on how many devices you have, remembering to unplug them could be time consuming.

And how many of your devices are plugged into electrical outlets that are hidden behind furniture? Crawling behind desks, bookshelves, or sofas every time you turned your computer or TV off or on is possible I suppose.

There’s an easier way.

Install and use a power strip or surge protector and plug your phantom load culprits into the power strip. Simple turn the power strip off—and all your devices plugged into it—with one touch of a button.
Turning the power strip off eliminates phantom loads from devices plugged into the power strip.

Here’s a photo of the one that hides just under my sofa. I leave it here for times when the kids (and friends) bring their PC’s into the living room to work their techy marvels.

Where several devices are grouped together such as your computer, its monitor and printer, use a power strip or surge protector with multiple sockets.

Here’s a photo of the one I use at my desk. It sits right under the edge of my desk where I can easily reach it and turn it off.

Caution: A local computer maintenance expert informs me that DSL modems should not be continually turned off and on, as would happen if plugged into a power strip you turn off and on.  For reasons beyond my realm of understanding, DSL modems must be kept on. Check with your computer maintenance professional (who knows about YOUR computer set-up) before using a power strip for your computer.

As you can see from my photos above, I turn my computer off at the power strip. However, my DSL modem must be plugged into the wall, not my power strip! This saves me some phantom load dollars while keeping my DSL modem healthy.

But it can be easier still.

If you don’t want to be responsible for remembering to turn off the power strip switch, you will want to use this Smart Power Strip.

This nifty smart power strip—which I will buy next time—automatically turns off when you turn off your computer.

This means, when you turn off your computer, all peripheral equipment associated with your computer (such as monitors, printers, etc) turn off automatically. Very cool.

Now it’s your turn! Take Action:

1. Purchase the Smart Power Strip on line or get one (or more if necessary) from your local home impovement store.
2. Install a power strip for each group of electronics such as computer group, entertainment group, etc.
3. Make a note on your excel sheet the date you begin using the power strips.

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.

If you’ve been taking the action steps in the first three (3) weeks of the Energy Challenge, you would know or have these things:

1.    How many kilowatt-hours your home used last year,
2.    The average kilowatt-hours used per month last year,
3.    A tracking excel sheet to track kilowatt-hour usage,
4.    How much energy your refrigerator uses (measured by your Kill-A-Watt meter)
5.    A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible and
6.    A water heater efficiently heating water when YOU decide you need it

Energy Conservation is a conscious decision; making a choice to change the way you use energy. In other words, you create a new energy habit. Experts say it takes 21 days for repeated action to become a habit.

But we can let a little technology help us out!

Last week you put your water heating system on autopilot.

This week you will put your home heating/cooling system on autopilot as well.

Let’s talk about your home Heating/Cooling System.

If you have a thermostat on your home heating/cooling system, there are three (3) strategies to help your system run more efficiently.
1.    Install a digital, programmable thermostat,
2.    Program your selected temperatures to
3.    Heating/Cooling system Maintenance:

1.    Set your home thermostat comfortably low in winter and comfortably high in summer. Start with deciding the lowest daytime temperature comfort level for your family in winter. Most people find 68 degrees an agreeable temperature; you particular comfort level may vary a few degrees either way.

Next, determine a comfortable nighttime temperature which is three (3) to five (5) degrees cooler than your daytime temperature.

After you’ve decided the temperature you can live with, remembering to make adjustments can be problematic. How do you remember to keep making adjustments to your home’s thermostat? You could figure out a way to do this 21 times to form this new thermostat adjustment habit.

Or you can put it on autopilot which brings you to step two (2).

2.    Install a digital, programmable thermostat compatible with your heating/cooling system and your lifestyle. This is one of the easiest ways you can save money on your utility bill. These thermostats manage the temperature adjustments for you at temperatures you decide.

Think about this. Say you find 62 degrees at night allows your family to sleep snugly and warm. But getting up for that morning shower at 62 degrees seems chilly. So, program your thermostat to turn up the heat about 30 minutes before the first family member gets up.

Do all family members leave home for the day for work or school? Why heat your home when no one is there? You can program your thermostat to automatically go back down when everyone leaves for the day, and up again just before everyone returns home.

Digital, programmable thermostats vary in price depending on the particular device complexity. We use a Honeywell product but there are many others on the market.

The EnergyStar site will help you:

•    Choose the right programmable thermostat for you
•    Have your thermostat properly installed
•    Properly set and use your thermostat

3.    Heating/Cooling System Maintenance. Alas, some things you just have to put on the calendar. This step goes on autopilot only if you hire someone to do this for you on a regular basis.

Contact a professional to check your heating/cooling system once a year—put this on your calendar. This yearly checkup keeps you system in good efficient working order.

Check the air filter on your heating/cooling system monthly. Check your owner’s manual for recommended filter types. When a filter is dirty, airflow is restricted causing your system to work harder. Working harder means wasting energy; which means you pay more on your energy bill.

So check the air filter monthly. If it looks dirty, change it. At the bare minimum, you need to change the filter every 3 months.

Take Action:
1.     Decide on minimum day and night temperature settings for your home
2.     Purchase and install a digital, programmable thermostat compatible with your home heating/cooling system
3.    Clean or replace your heating/cooling system air filter monthly (check owner’s manual for suggestions).
4.    Put regular heating/cooling system maintenance on your yearly home maintenance calendar

5.   Notate implementation dates of these energy savings strategies in your excel sheet or on your calendar

Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 3

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.

If you’ve participated in the first two (2) weeks and taken the action steps, you should know or have these four (4) things:
1.    How many kilowatt-hours your home use last year,
2.    The average kilowatt-hours per month last year,
3.    How much energy your refrigerator uses (measured by your kil-a-watt meter
4.    A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible

Let’s start today’s challenge with a simple analogy.

In today’s techy world, more and more people make electronic payments. We each use electronic payments for different reasons. Electronic payments can help us manage and control our finances, reduce paper, avoid identify theft, save money, and save time.

One of the reason electronic payments work so well for us is that they can be put on autopilot. Once our electronic payments are scheduled, they happen without us thinking about them.

Today’s energy conservation strategy is one strategy that can be put on autopilot and work without you having to constantly think about it.

Today our topic is Hot Water.

If you have an electric water heater, here are three (3) strategies to help your water heater run efficiently – on autopilot.

1. Lower your water heater thermostat to 120 degrees. This is warm enough for daily hot water use at home. This minimum setting reduces energy demand on the tank and reduces the excess heat given off by the water heater itself.

2. Install a timer on your water heater. An electric water heater timer allows you have hot water when you need it. It automatically heats water when you want it and turns it off when you don’t. A good, affordable timer is the Intermatic WH21 Electric Water Heater Timer You can purchase one here or check your local home improvement store.

At our house, we have the timer scheduled to heat water 3 hours in the morning and then again 3 hours in the evening. With this schedule, we have plenty of hot water available for everyday use.

The only time we ran low on hot water was when we had houseguests during the holidays. So while they were here we turned the timer off.

When you set your timer to heat water depends on your family size and routine. In the beginning, try setting your timer to heat water two or three hours each morning and/or evening. If you find you run out of hot water, adjust the schedule. Make adjustments till you get a schedule that works well for your family.

If you will be away from home more than two days, turn the water heater off completely. There’s no need to heat water when no one is there to use it!

3. Water Heater Maintenance: Hot water heater’s need maintenance as well. Flush the tank every six months. This is easy enough for the do-it-yourself types. If you are the do-it-yourself type, you can find simple instructions here. If you’d rather have an expert do it, check with your local home improvement store. Places like Lowes offers water heater maintenance as a service.

Take Action:
1.    Lower your water heater thermostat setting to 120 degrees
2.    Purchase and install a water heater timer on your electric water heater
3.    Flush the tank of your water heater yourself or have an expert do it for you.
4.    Schedule your next water heater maintenance and put it on your home maintenance calendar
5.    Notate implementation dates of these energy savings strategies in your excel sheet or on your calendar

Home Energy Conservation Challenge –      Week 2

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.

Remember our grocery shopping analogy from last week? If not, here it is again:

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, you do not grocery shop this way! The family member who grocery shops every week has a fairly good idea what their basic grocery items cost.

If you got started last week, and have begun tracking your kilowatt-hour use, comparing 2008 to 2009, you have a good idea of your monthly energy use. As you continue to track and compare month by month, you will be able to see how your energy savings strategies are working.

You now also know how much you are paying per kilowatt-hour (or per gallon where applicable): dollar amount of your bill divided by the number of kilowatt-hours you used equals cost per kWh.

Armed with this information, cost per kilowatt-hour, you can get a good estimate of how much it cost you to use most of your household appliances.

Next to your heating/cooling system and hot water heating system, major household appliances like your refrigerator, freezer, stove, and washer/dryer are the big energy uses in your home.

There are a couple ways to estimate the energy used by your home appliances:

1.    Read the appliance manufacturer’s specs label (or engraving) and do the math, or
2.     Use a simple Kill-A-Watt meter
The first method is the longer, more arduous path. If you want to take this route, you certainly may. The math equation is: amps X volts = watts. If you want to do it this way, leave a comment and I’ll post the arduous details.

But I know you have a life! You are going to work every day, raising a family, feeding them, carpooling them, helping them do homework, etc.

Take heart, there’s a better way.

The second method, easier and more accurate, is to use an Kill-A-Watt electric meter. It basically works like this: the meter plugs into the electric outlet, and then you plug your appliance into the electric meter.

The electric meter I use is a Kill-o-watt Meter. You program your cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) into the meter before plugging it into the electric socket. Then plug your appliance, say your refrigerator, into the electric meter. I suggest you leave the appliance plugged into the Kill-o-watt Meter for 24 hours in order to get a more accurate reading.

Record the kilowatt-hours used per 24 hour period on the Kill-A-Watt meter page of the Energy Challenge excel sheet. Multiply the number of kilowatt-hours by 365 (days per year) to find how much it costs you to run this appliance for a year. Enter this in your excel sheet as well.

We will use this number later when we read EnergyStar Labels.

Also, this number will come in handy to help you decide if and/or when the appliance needs to be replaced.

Proper maintenance also keeps your major appliances running more efficiently.

No doubt, you perform proper maintenance on your automobile, changing oil, rotating tires, checking air in tires, etc. Proper vehicle maintenance helps your automobile run more efficiently and last you longer.

Well, major household appliances need periodic maintenance as well, especially your refrigerator and freezer.

Watch this 2-minute video to learn how to do quick, periodic maintenance to your refreigertor.

Take Action:
1.    Order your Kill-A-Watt meter through this link, (or get one elsewhere).
2.    Clean the coils of your refrigerator as shown in this video
3.    Use the Kill-A-Watt meter and record the energy use of your refrigerator, freezer, floor lamps, and other 120 volt appliances in your Energy Challenge Excel spreadsheet

Note: 210 volt appliances like an all electric stove, water heater, and clothes dryer, cannot be measured with the Kill-A-Watt meter

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.

Home Energy Conservation Challenge 2009

Welcome to the Home Energy Conservation Challenge! Here are the details.

Each week on Wednesday, I post simple steps of an energy conservation strategy. Please note the focus of these monthly posts will be on home energy conservation. Although energy conservation while driving, traveling, shopping, eating, etc, are important, our focal point will be energy used in the home.

Conventional energy sources used for the average American home are electricity, gas, and oil. Depending on where you live, your electric energy usually originates from the burning of fossil fuels: coal or oil. This energy is measured in kilowatt-hours. Natural gas is also measured in kilowatt-hours. Heating oil, propane, and kerosene are measured in gallons.

Energy use per home varies. For the purposes of this challenge, the size of your homes does not matter. You are never required to share your location, the size of your home, the amount of your utility bill, how many gallons of heating fuel (oil, propane, kerosene, etc) or how many kilowatt-hours you use.

If you voluntarily share this information, be assured there are NO CARBON FOOTPRINT POLICE here to wag a green thumb in your face or slap you with a “carbon offset” fee.

The purpose of the challenge is to help and encourage anyone who wants to learn energy conservation strategies, reduce their carbon footprint, or just reduce their monthly utility bill. Your progress can only be measured and compared to your past energy consumption, no one else’s.

Here’s how the challenge will work. I will post the weekly conservation challenge on the SimpleHomeSolarEnergy.com blog page. I will provide information, action steps, and when appropriate, resources. Information and action steps can be implemented quickly, usually in less than 30 minutes.

Participants are welcome to share their conservation frustrations, failures, successes, and questions in the comments. The idea is to share what we learn with one another, so we all get better at energy conservation.

Since the idea is to share what you learn, invite others to join us here. If you have your own blog, share what you are learning with your readers to help and encourage them. Then come back to the conservation challenge page and leave your web address in the comments. That way, the people you meet here can stop by and visit you.

Also remember to link back from your blog to our challenge here at Simple Home Solar Energy!

Of course, you are welcome to participate without interaction or conversation with others, but I hope you will join the conversation. You may know or discover something that would benefit the rest of us.