Get Going on Your Energy Conservation Plan

Before you can possibly start to make informed choices about your home use of energy, you need to give it some thought and start from a solid foundation of applicable knowledge, and then do a few calculations. Being informed on how you use energy in your home will let you make the best choices about replacing your appliances or changing your heating and cooling systems.

To get started, the first step is finding out what your baseload energy consumption is. Your baseload consumption includes those systems and appliances in your home that run the whole year. It includes things like the gas grills, refrigerator, computers, ovens, lights, entertainment centers, and any other regularly used appliances. If your home uses both natural gas and electricity, then you will have to figure your electricity and gas baseloads in separate calculations. It's not too hard.

You will need about a year's worth of electric and gas statements. If you don't have them on hand, contact the company and have them send you the last year's collection of bills. Next, you'll want to take a look at how your energy usage changes during the year. Mark the numbers on a graph. The usage curve will be defined by your climate. If you live in a cold region, your highest expenses will be for heat; conversely in a hot climate your air conditioning costs will be the larger share. Find the lowest energy usage months. These months are the months that consist of mostly your baseload consumption. The idea is to identify the months for which there is little or no seasonal usage. If there happen to be a number of months that fit this pattern, use the average monthly level as your baseload figure. Measure the actual energy usage, not the dollar amount you pay. Energy prices change over time and are subject to long-term and seasonal cycles of world energy commodities like natural gas, coal, and oil. Your electricity is billed in kilowatt hours and gas is measured in therms, which is a unit of heat energy, or less commonly, in hundred cubic feet segments. Record the amount of your usage in the actual units used rather than the dollar amount of the bill so that you will have a good picture of your energy consumption at the commodity level over the years.

Now that you have found what your baseload energy usage is, it is simple to determine what your seasonal demands are. Simply subtract the baseload usage from each month to determine how much of each month's bill is due to heating or cooling usage. Add up the amount for each month and this will give you your annual cooling and heating needs. Multiply the average baseload usage by 12 to get the yearly baseload numbers. As an extra step, to put the figures in context, you can confirm the figures by checking them against the amounts you actually paid, which can be found right on the statements. Then to find the amount of your annual costs, check the bills to see the price you pay for each kWh of electric power and each therm (or whatever metering unit your utility utilizes to bill gas usage) of gas. Multiply the annual usage and the unit price and you can see what your annual cost is. Finally, check your work against the dollar totals, and you will have the amounts exceeding baseload for reference.

So what?

Here's where this all pays off. You can use the information you put together to put your energy efficiency projects in an order of priority. Should you buy a new, more efficient heating unit or replace your inefficient refrigerator? If you know your baseload energy usage in comparison with the seasonal, the decision will be easier to make. You will know which project will be worth investing in.


Content presented by Automated Homefinder, your Colorado Boulder real estate specialists.