It is quite common amongst frugal circles to try and compare utility usage (eg. home heating fuel, electricity, water) but the reality is this comparison serves no purpose. You can have two identical houses side-by-side and their energy usage will differ due to family lifestyle. In any given neighbourhood, the houses may be of different ages as well as upgrades so the energy usage with differ significally. Our natural gas provider has a comparison app to compare our energy usage to the average energy usage in our neighbourhood. At our old house we were coming in at one third of the energy usage when compared to the neighbourhood average for natural gas and electricity.
Our recent move will result in less electricity usage but an increase in gas usage given that we are now cooking with natural gas rather than electricity. The overall natural gas usage may decrease without the natural gas outdoor grill and fireplace. I printed out our natural gas usage chart from the last house. While I know I can't compare the two houses in terms of energy usage since this house was built in 1997 while our last house was built in 1945, it will still give me an idea of where we need to focus for energy reduction. Overall, we should see a total reduction in our actual energy usage in this house in comparison to our old house. My goal is to keep our usage to the one third mark of neighbourhood average, hopefully less than what we were paying at our last house.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
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