PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric for you non-Californians) has this neat tool on their website which allows you to track you gas and electricity consumption.
I rediscovered this little tool while I was paying my bill online last week (for the ghastly sum of $114 - eek). To my UTTER DISMAY, my little 1150 sq foot home is on the “uses most energy” spectrum of annual gas energy use. In other words, I am (way) above average in gas use.
Digging into this more, I discovered that almost 75% of my costs comes from heating. Now remember, I live in sunny California. It’s not like I’m freezing my arse off in the tundras of the midwest, where I used to live (Chicago, to be exact). And my place isn’t some 5000 square foot mansion. During the day, I keep the temperature at 68 degrees and from 6-12pm, it’s at 70 degrees. Clearly, this isn’t cutting it. I guess I’m going to need to lower the thermostat and start wearing more sweaters.
Well, there’s always a silver lining… even though I get an F in gas costs, I get an A for electricity costs. I am way below average compared to the average home. YEAH! My highest costs are from hot water. Yikes. But don’t worry - the solution is to stop bathing. Kidding…!
Anyway, I’m clearly going to have to work on this. I’d love to hear from you and see what’s worked - please feel free to leave a comment with some tips!
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