How I Cut My Energy Use in Half
When I first started my green journey in 2007 I would never have dreamed that my family would cut our gas use by 34% and our electricity use by 55% in three years. Three years ago we already kept our heat set at 68, turned our computers off at night, and used very little lighting during the day. How would we wring so much savings out of habits that we perceived as being already frugal?
Of course, we didn’t have automated thermostats. And we often forgot to set our heat back at night. And we had two refrigerators. But we didn’t notice these things until we ran the numbers and found out exactly how much energy we were using: 13,000 kWh per year (2006), about 800 kWh more than the average American, and just shy of 2000 therms per year (for 2007).
In 2009 we were down to 6256 kWh and 1299 therms. How did we get there? Well it turns out to have been a combination of investments in home performance and changes in behavior.
Given that our house was built in 1895 we weren’t surprised that a lot of energy was leaking out through our home’s “envelope.” One of the first things we did to cut our heating bill was to insulate our attic, which we followed with a more comprehensive round of insulation and air sealing last year.
But energy upgrades alone cannot account for the vast reductions we have achieved. In regards to heating, we could never have made such steep cuts in our gas usage without programmable thermostats which enable us to consistently set our heat back at night. And our electrical reductions are due almost entirely by behavioral changes and small investments such as:
- unplugging our second fridge (now we plug it in only when we need it for entertaining, which isn’t all that much),
- changing out almost every light in our house to CFLs (we even installed a few LED lights last year),
- leaving our central air off (we use fans except on the hottest nights of the year–generally when the indoor temperature rises above 80),
- plugging our entertainment center and home office equipment into smart strips (which completely power down connected devices when they aren’t in use),
- washing our clothes in warm or cold water and line drying as much as we can manage,
- setting our dishwasher to the optimizer setting, and
- installing a whole house electricity monitor to track our electricity usage and keep us honest.
None of these changes cost very much money upfront. In fact the most impactful of them (leaving our air conditioner off and unplugging our second fridge) were free and resulted in immediate savings.
So if you’ve been wondering whether the little things–like turning things off, unplugging things, and installing CFLs–really work, our reductions–particularly our electrical reductions–are proof that they do. Which isn’t to minimize the importance of tightening your envelope: if your home leaks like a sieve you will certainly undercut the efficacy of weatherstripping your doors and setting back your heat at night.
The lesson, I think, is that low cost changes can add up to big savings, especially when they are joined to investments in measurable improvements to your home’s energy performance.
I’m not saying that making low-cost behavioral changes are easy–often it isn’t. But it can be done. It is being done in houses all across the country. And what I want to know is this: How is it being done in your house?
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What exactly is and where did you get your whole house electricity monitor? That sounds fascinating.
Comment by Monique Rio — January 21, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
Hi Monique,
Great question.
The short answer is that whole house energy monitors show you how much electricity you are using in real time: you turn something on, the consumption goes up; you turn something off and your usage drops. The monitors can be set to display either your usage in kWh or dollars and cents.
For more information including pricing and where to buy, check out my recently published post about whole house energy monitors: http://www.greenereverydayconsulting/monitor-your-energy-use.
Comment by Rachel White — January 25, 2010 @ 8:05 am