In looking over my utility bills this month, I noticed that my gas bill, which is usually fairly low, was almost twice as much as usual. After calling to make sure there wasn't an issue with my meter, I began to take a look at our usage.
The only thing we have gas for is heating our water, so it shouldn't have been hard to suss out the culprit. Normally, we are very mindful of keeping our water heater set to below 120 degrees. We usually only take 15 minute showers and never (or rarely) let the warm water just run. We may've done a couple extra loads of laundry and an extra load of dishes, but that didn't account for the $20 bump in our bill.
The only thing that was different is that the washer was set to warm/warm instead of cold/cold. That, oddly enough, was enough to tip the scales.
Because of this, I decided to do an energy audit through our utilities websites. These are the tips I was given with the amount of savings I could expect:
Water Heating & Laundry
These are the low to no cost solutions that you can implement yourself.
| Money Saving Suggestions | Savings per Year |
|---|---|
| Keep the water heater temperature at or below 120 degrees | $1-$4 |
| Wrap your water heater with an insulating blanket (if it's a standard tank) | $2-$3 |
| Drain your water heater once a year | $1-$2 |
| Install low flow shower heads | $11-$19 |
| Insulate hot water pipes | $4-$6 |
| Wash full loads of dishes | $2-$4 |
| Air dry dishes | $7-$12 |
| Match clothes washer load setting to load size | $1-$2 |
| Use cooler water for washing clothes | $15-$25 |
| Estimated savings per year | [$44-$75] |
Not mentioned in the audit was air drying clothes. Estimates I've found state that you save about $1.08 per load that is air-dried vs. dried in the dryer. There are some issues to drying clothes indoors, so let's say this is only an option for about half the year. If you do 4 loads per week x 26 weeks, that equals a savings of about $112/year.
Heating & Cooling
| Money Saving Suggestions | Savings per Year |
|---|---|
| Reduce your thermostat by 1 degree (in the Winter) | $11-$18 |
| Weatherstrip around doors. Your amount of savings will depend on how tight your current seal is. | $varies |
| Keep your thermostat at 76 degrees in the Summer. By doing this, you can save up to $122 over keeping it 2-3 degrees cooler. | $77-$122 |
| Use ceiling fans while in a room—allows you to typically raise your thermostat up to 3 degrees without threatening comfort levels | |
| Do yearly maintenance on your cooling system. | $7-$12 |
| Estimated savings per year | [$84-$134] |
There are other tips to reduce your cost of heating and cooling, that weren't addressed by the energy audit. Things like window coverings and draft dodgers that block out the elements & help to insulate.
Lighting
| Money Saving Suggestions | Savings per Year |
|---|---|
| Reduce lighting usage by 20%—this can easily be done by turning lights off when leaving the room | $19-$23 |
| Use compact fluorescent light bulbs in high-use lamps instead of incandescent. You can save about $5-$6 per light bulb (per year). | $17-$21 |
| OR, you can use LED light bulbs in those high-use lamps, instead of incandescent. This saves about $7-$9 per bulb (per year). | $28-$36 |
| Estimated savings per year | [$36-$59] |
A little math:
- If you replace 10 incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, you can save $50-$60 per year.
- If you replace 10 incandescent bulbs with LEDs, you can save $70-$90 per year.
- If you replace 10 compact fluorescent bulbs with LEDs, you can save $20-$30 per year.
Cost for both fluorescent and LED light bulbs has gone down drastically over the last couple of years. You can buy these when on sale or look for discounted prices through your utility company. While LED bulbs may still cost between $3-$8 per bulb, their life-span is 23-30 years, so it may be worth the investment.
Essentially, my utility company says that by making these small, manageable changes, I can save up to $290 per year in energy costs ($402 if I'm air drying my clothes). That breaks down to about $24 per month.
If I wanted to go further, I could invest in better windows, thicker insulation, duct insulation, and an attic or whole-house fan—but all of that takes a bit bigger investment, in both time and money. (Although I am considering an attic fan.)
What I'm doing and what I still need to do:
Water Heating and Laundry
- ✔ Keep the water temp at or below 120
✗ Insulate water heater—I've not done this yet
✗ Drain water heater
✗ Install low-flow shower head
✗ Insulate hot water pipes
✔ Wash full load of dishes
✗ Air dry dishes (we are, admittedly, bad at this)
✔ Match clothes washer load setting to load size
✔ Use cooler water to wash clothes
Heating and Cooling
- ✔ Reduce heating by 1 degree (in winter)
✗ Weather strip doors
✗ Keep a/c at 76 degrees
✔ Use ceiling fans (only when in the room)
✗ Maintain cooling system
✔Replace HVAC air filter regularly
Lighting
- ✔ Turn lights off when not in the room
✗ Replace halogen light bulbs with LED
✗ Replace fluorescent light bulbs with LED
✔ Replace incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent
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