How much should your energy bill be?

Many of us don't put much attention on our energy bills other than to complain a bit, but we begrudgingly go online or write the check and send off our payment.

Before becoming a trained energy auditor I "begrudgingly" gave $700 of my hard earned money every month to the power company.  I didn't have any real solutions for a fix other than to run the cooling/heating system (both were electric) in short intervals - I would run the air conditioner until the house was tolerable and then turn it off until it became intolerable - this saved me about $50 per month but it was a nuisance and I wasn't comfortable living in my own home!

After having done energy audits on lots of homes I realized I was not the only one with high energy bills and living in uncomfortable conditions.

According to the Department of Energy the average house size in America is 1,500 square feet and the average monthly energy bill is close to $200 ($0.1333 per square foot).  From our findings (doing energy audits) we found that the majority of homes that we inspected (95%) could easily cut that bill in half.  90% of that savings was obtained through construction retrofits and equipment upgrades and 10% through installing better controls and changing energy usage habits.

From this we made a chart to serve as a guideline to act as a target to achieve one of my primary goals - reduce the residential use of energy in North America by 50% - on each home we audited.  The following chart now sets my monthly benchmarks for achieving this.

This accomplishes another very important goal - to reduce carbon emissions by an average of 9 tons per year per home.  I don't subscribe to the global warming theory but I do know that excessive amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere is not healthy!

This where I really get to rub it in - How Good Can It Get?

The house shown below is situated in Mississippi.  It has 3,700 square feet of living area, 2 -stories and was built approximately three years ago.  This home was constructed by an energy conscious builder (there are very few of them around).

 

The message I wish to get across here is that in all likelihood you are paying too much for energy and that something can be done about it.

What makes a house energy inefficient?

House building standards in America have not been adequate in terms of dealing with energy issues simply because they were not considered issues until the cost of producing energy and associated environmental issues became a concern.

American homeowners are now faced with upgrading their homes to be more energy and cost efficient and thus providing healthier and more comfortable living environments for their families.

Energy supply, distribution and the resulting pollution is quickly becoming a very troublesome issue, especially in these economically challenged times, which is now being addressed through stricter building codes enforcing energy efficient construction of new homes.  

HOW DOES MY HOME LOSE ENERGY?

The indoor environment is isolated from the outdoor environment by the outer shell of the house – roof, walls and foundation.  90% of home energy loss occurs in these areas.  The other 10% of energy loss relates directly to lack of controls by the occupants.

Following is a list of all the areas of a home that contribute to energy loss:

Lights

Attic, Walls, Floors

Windows & Doors

Basements & Crawl Spaces

Ventilation & Ducting

Joints & Seals

Heating & Cooling Systems

Water Heaters

Landscape