Understanding Your Home’s Energy Usage

In order to accomplish significant progress in the fight against climate change, we must develop a deeper awareness of and appreciation for the environment. Part of this awareness and appreciation comes from educating people about the impacts that their daily choices have on the environment; there is perhaps no better place to start than learning about your home’s energy usage.

The reality is that most people have very little connection to how much energy they use. Practicing these simple steps will significantly improve your understanding of energy use and the connection between your light switch and global climate change.

The first thing to do in your quest to understand your energy usage is locate your electric meter. Most meters are in the rear or side of a house or building, but if you can’t find it, give your utility a call and they should be able to tell you where yours is located.

Next, you’ll want to do a fair amount of experimentation. I suggest getting your kids, spouse, or roommate to help you with this. Stand beside your meter and observe its movement for a couple of minutes. Your meter will either be an older analog meter or a newer digital one. If you have an older analog meter, you will see a little wheel that spins around at a continuous rate indicating that electricity (kilowatt hours) is being used. If you have a digital meter, you will see some numbers adding up. This directly represents the power that you are currently using.

You’ll then want to go inside and turn off everything in the house. I mea
EVERYTHING. Turn off the lights, unplug your phantom power loads (which of course you can do with Green Irene’s Energy-Saving Power Strip with Remote), turn off the heater or AC, unplug the answering machine, and even your fridge. Now go back outside and look at your meter. What you’ll notice, if you’ve turned off everything in the house, is barely any movement on the meter because you aren’t pulling much, if any, juice at all.

Once you’ve done that, head back inside and turn EVERYTHING on! All lights, space heaters, AC, and appliances, and plug in those chargers. Then head back to the meter and you’ll notice it counting up/turning at a very fast pace. Watch it for a minute or two – or until you can’t bear it anymore – and then head in and turn everything back off.

Understanding this connection between your home’s energy usage and your meter will create a mental device that you can use when thinking about energy and cost savings. You’ll begin asking yourself important questions you never once thought you would: Is the wheel turning fast or slow? Are the numbers shooting up or barely moving?

Try and find out where your energy actually comes from, and more importantly, what effect that energy has on the environment. For instance, it turns out that Southern California’s fuel mix is much greener compared to the rest of the United States. Dirty coal represents only 11.9% of the fuel mix to generate electricity in Southern California, whereas it constitutes almost 50% of the nation’s mix. However, according to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s 2008 Power Content Label, a whooping 44% of the power in our area comes from coal, significantly higher than the state’s average. Even more alarming, other sources of energy i.e. renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, all of which play a small part in making the juice that turns on our lights, makes up only 8% of the utilities fuel mix. There is much room for improvement! Knowing these facts empowers you, the consumer, to demand the LA Department of Water and Power to decrease its reliance on coal by increasing its renewable portfolio and also to be more conscious of your own energy usage habits.

At the end of the day, what’s important is connecting yourself to what you are doing, what you are a part of, and chances are, you’ll want to do better. So much energy is being wasted simply because we do not know we are doing it. Educate yourself and you’ll not only feel better about wasting less, but you’ll save money at the same time.