If you've been following along this month, then you know that I have been reassessing our energy goals — or, as my wife puts it, freaking out. We have put a significant amount of time and money into improving how we use energy in our house and, frankly, I was hoping for better results.
After doing some research, I realize now that my mistake was not in making these investments, but rather in not establishing benchmarks earlier in the process. It is not enough to keep track of our utility bills — although it is a great start! — we also need to find out just what "normal" is in order to tell whether we are getting the expected results.
The weather in February this year was much the same as February last year, and our utility bills were basically the same as last year — even though we now have five people living under our roof instead of three. Electricity usage is up slightly, probably because we now have five people sharing three computers; water usage has almost doubled at the same time that our population has almost doubled; and natural gas usage has gone down! Fixing missing insulation, replacing elderly weatherstripping, and blocking off our fireplace may have had the effects I was looking for after all.February 2009 Data
Electricity, in kWh
Cost / Unit
Gas, in Therms
Cost / Unit
Water, in CCF
Cost / Unit
800
$.095
214
$1.22
8
$1.84