Home Energy Audit

I am married and my wife and I currently live an apartment. The energy consumed by most of our items we can change to more energy-efficient product. What I found out about the energy consumption of everything in our home is that our appliances cost the most. This was a surprise to me as I never would have guessed that most of what I pay for is in the kitchen, but it makes sense as the fridge is running 24/7. Also, we are fortunate to not have a washer and dryer which I think would increase our energy bill quite a bit. My total was about $113 a month, which is not correct. I may have overestimated on the amount of hours that we use some devices and maybe I fibbed on some of the data collected, but I felt that I had fairly accurate data representation. The electric bill averages about $75 during the summer and $90 during the winter.

Looking at my data on phantom loads, I was able to find just about everything by looking at if they still consume power while they are "off" which tells me that they are leeking power or have phantom loads. There were a few incorrect answers in my data, but for the most part I was correct in my answers.

I do not have a lot of options in reducing my home's power demand, but what I found I could do that most was turning off the lights when not in use, changing all of my light bulbs to CFL, and putting my entertainment system all on a extension cord so that I can turn it off every night to reduce phantom power consumption. Now, my situation is different because I do purchase 100% renewable energy already at a higher cost. This was a recent decision I made after receiving the option from the City of Champaign C/O Homefield Energy. I am not entirely sure what renewable energy source it is coming from, however I did appreciate that I was given this option as I am now taking this class and can say that I have made the decision to purchase my power as 100% renewable. From not continuing on the traditional generation of power, I am reducing my carbon emission and my ecological footprint on the planet.

If I had my choice and had the money, I would rather have a home powered by solar-power. This is something that I feel is the cleanest generation of power. When think of the process of the making of the solar panels, I would not feel confident as to whether or not they were produced in an environment that uses 100% renewable energy. In other words, my energy may be 100% renewable, but the actual product that I buy may not be saving energy as I would think it would.