Every family uses energy differently in their home. It all depends on the family's lifestyle, habits and the home they live in. The type of heating and air conditioning you have, how you heat your water, your lighting and appliances are all a major part of your energy usage and cost. If you want to discover how you really use energy around your house then you should try the "Home Energy Yardstick". It's a great place to start when looking to discover not only how you use energy but any problems you or your home has with inefficient use of energy.
To use the Home Energy Yardstick doesn't take very long but it does take some effort. There are some things you will need to know about your home like the last three months of hydro and gas or other energy bills. The size of your home and most of the rest you shouldn't have to look up. The length of time it with take you will depend somewhat on the complexity of your home. But it really is quite easy and you can do it online.
One of the things Energy Star's Home Energy Yardstick does is compare your use of energy with how other homes of similar size and geographic location use energy. This in itself will give you an idea of how efficient your home is along with maybe how good or bad your habits are when it comes to using energy. For instance I know some people who complain about their energy bills but run around the house in the middle of winter with nothing on their feet and the front door open and only the storm closed. Not good habits for saving energy.
If the home energy yardstick does not give you enough information of course you could always have a comprehensive energy audit done on your house by a professional energy auditor. An energy audit will give you a more complete picture of how you use energy around your house. An added feature of the audit is it will also identify potential health or safety issues that you might have as well.
You need to understand that every home is unique in the way it uses energy. If you are really want to reduce the energy use of your home, you really need to know how a where you will get the most bang for your buck. For example, if you know you have poor windows and you are leaking a lot of your heat to the outdoors that maybe should be priority number one. It would also be more cost effective to do that than for example add insulation. If your furnace is not new but not in bad shape but your habits are poor then replacing the furnace will really do little to help save energy.
Figuring out where the problems are is step one. Fixing the issues is really step two and can take a while to complete depending on how aggressive you are able to approach the problems. Keeping your home running efficiently should be your long term goal and will take the rest of your days in your home working on it.
Do you realize the average family's utility bills are about $1,900 a year? The problem is a lot of that money and energy is wasted. Not only that but each year the electricity produced for a single home often by fossil fuels, produces more carbon dioxide than two average cars.
The Home Energy Yardstick can help you in make your home more efficient. You can do-it-yourself in just minutes. Make your home more energy efficient, help reduce your high energy bills and help the environment.
Start making small changes today!
One of the things Energy Star's Home Energy Yardstick does is compare your use of energy with how other homes of similar size and geographic location use energy. This in itself will give you an idea of how efficient your home is along with maybe how good or bad your habits are when it comes to using energy. For instance I know some people who complain about their energy bills but run around the house in the middle of winter with nothing on their feet and the front door open and only the storm closed. Not good habits for saving energy.
If the home energy yardstick does not give you enough information of course you could always have a comprehensive energy audit done on your house by a professional energy auditor. An energy audit will give you a more complete picture of how you use energy around your house. An added feature of the audit is it will also identify potential health or safety issues that you might have as well.
You need to understand that every home is unique in the way it uses energy. If you are really want to reduce the energy use of your home, you really need to know how a where you will get the most bang for your buck. For example, if you know you have poor windows and you are leaking a lot of your heat to the outdoors that maybe should be priority number one. It would also be more cost effective to do that than for example add insulation. If your furnace is not new but not in bad shape but your habits are poor then replacing the furnace will really do little to help save energy.
Figuring out where the problems are is step one. Fixing the issues is really step two and can take a while to complete depending on how aggressive you are able to approach the problems. Keeping your home running efficiently should be your long term goal and will take the rest of your days in your home working on it.
Do you realize the average family's utility bills are about $1,900 a year? The problem is a lot of that money and energy is wasted. Not only that but each year the electricity produced for a single home often by fossil fuels, produces more carbon dioxide than two average cars.
The Home Energy Yardstick can help you in make your home more efficient. You can do-it-yourself in just minutes. Make your home more energy efficient, help reduce your high energy bills and help the environment.
Start making small changes today!
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