Ever since Thomas Edison fired up his Pearl Street Power Station in 1882 more and more households every year are connected to the “Grid”, and your house is probably not an exception to this. The question is, how much energy does your house pull from the power transmission network? It’s time to get out your electricity bills for the past year and determine how much you have used and how much it has cost you. If you have complete records, this will be easy. If not, you may have to dig through your bank statements to determine how much you have paid each month. Many power companies include a summary of your energy use for the past twelve months. Using this information, total up how much you have spent on electricity and the kilowatt hours (KWH) that you have for the past year. Then divide the former by the latter to determine your effective electricity rate. If you want to be even more accurate, you can sort through all of your electric bills and subtract all of the charges that are not related to how much electricity that you use from your annual electrical cost. These are charges that will you will pay just for being a customer, and unfortunately won’t shrink as your electricity use goes down.

Next, repeat the last step with your fuel (natural gas, propane, fuel oil) bills. Find your bills, total up your costs and total energy used. In the US natural gas is typically measured in CCFs (100 cubic feet), while propane and fuel oil are measured in gallons. Here to, you may have “customer” charges on your bill that you might want to subtract. Divide your fuel costs by the amount used in order to determine your rate.

Third, you should find your water bills, record your water usage for a year, and calculate your rate. Just like natural gas, in the US water is usually billed by the CCF. However, unlike other utilities they don’t just charge you for what you use (water charges), but they also charge you to take it away (sewer charges). Furthermore, they charge you to manage the rain that falls on your property (stormwater charges).

You may also use an alternative fuel type for some or all of your heating needs. Whether it is solar, wood, pellets, corn, coal or another fuel, you should determine your annual consumption, costs and rate.

The other aspect of setting a baseline is to itemize the water and energy saving strategies and products that you already employ that are not readily evident when doing a home energy audit. Do you have ceiling fans in any of your rooms, a clothes dryer heat diverter, dual flush toilet conversion kits, or LED night lights? How about a moisture meter for your garden and lawn, motion/occupancy sensors, electric space heaters or a solar attic fan? Do you line dry your clothes, use a sun oven or have a wind turbine? List all of the water and energy saving products and strategies that you already use. This will help you when you prioritize which products and strategies to use next.

Dan Bossenbroek

Progress: as of end of August 2009 vs 2007

• Electricity – 65.6%
• Natural Gas – 77.3%
• Water – 83.5%
• Utility Costs – 73.7%
• Savings 2008 – $200.15
• Savings 2009 – $700.67
• Total Savings – $900.82