How Can I Get a Handle on My Energy Usage at Home?

If you’re looking to get a handle on the energy efficiency of your home in an, um, efficient manner, you’ll need to first figure out how much you’re currently consuming – dissect your utility bills. As a baseline for comparison, the typical North American home spends about $2,000 a year on energy bills. And according to the EPA, the electricity used in an average home accounts for about twice the carbon pollution as the average car with the major energy-guzzling culprit being the heating and cooling systems.

Take a look around your home at all the different ways you consume resources; just by paying attention you’ll learn a lot about your energy spending habits and how you can make some simple changes.

Home Sweet (Energy Guzzling) Home

If you’re seeing a spike in energy costs, it could be because of a few things:

• additional occupants in your home (son home from college?),
• addition of appliances (new freezer in the garage?),
• faulty appliances (still holding on to that old television?),
• leaking air (poor weather proofing around doors and windows?),
• seasonal appliances (using a humidifier in the winter or power tools in the spring?),
• big events (hosting more parties than usual?).

Getting a Handle on Energy Usage at Home

You probably spend more energy than you realize, that makes for some great opportunities for home improvements to save big. Here are the top three energy guzzlers and some simple tips to save.

Seal Up Leaks

Start with finding leaks through holes in sheetrock, through hatches or doors that lead into your attic or basement as well as leaks through doors and windows and even repairing cracked HVAC ducts.

Your next step is to close those energy-robbing gaps (and enjoy a more comfortable home) with weather-stripping, expandable foam sealant, caulking, etc. Some of these sealing tips, like caulking, can be DIY, but others you’ll need to seal the deal with the pros.

Maximizing Your HVAC

Heating and cooling are the biggest components of the utility budget in most homes. In order to solve the inefficiency problem, you need to remember a few things: change filters regularly, maintain your unit, install a high-efficiency HVAC that will save you big bucks down the road. And one of the easiest ways to reduce your energy is with a programmable thermostat. This can be a simple DIY or call in the pros to make sure it’s done correctly.

And remember, home comfort isn’t just determined by the temperature in a room (don’t be so quick to crank the AC), but it also includes a variety of other factors such as air movement and humidity. So, turn on the ceiling fan (when you’re in the room) and use a humidifier in the winter months.

Shine the Light on the Efficiency

The typical home spends between 8-10 percent of their energy budget on lighting (not including the cost of the bulbs and equipment). Think about it…how many lights do you have on right now. Go ahead and look around, count them. Obviously, the easiest way to save money is to simply use less lighting throughout your day. But if you turn on your clever switch, you can reduce your bill even further. Replace your old-fashioned bulbs with LED bulbs, or better yet, take advantage of natural lighting! Install motion detectors, dimmer switches and even whole-house SMART controllers.

Take note, if you’re working from home, your lighting, heating and cooling costs will simply be higher than average.

Finding More Ways to Save

These are just the top three ways we typically waste energy around the home; of course there’s more ways to save like looking at your water usage habits, vampire electronics and appliances that eat up power like it’s their job (namely your microwave and refrigerator). Whether you’re looking to save money or save the planet (or both), making energy efficient choices is the smart way to go for your pocket book today and for future generations to come.