There’s a hip new way to save energy, and it is making waves in the UK. The Wattson is a sleek and chic device that measures a household’s energy usage in real-time and displays it in watts per hour or British Pounds per year. The system works in two parts. The first is a tool that attaches to the electric meter, measuring the current amount of electricity being used by the household. This tool then communicates wirelessly to the second, which is an attractive display placed prominently inside the house- on a kitchen counter, perhaps. This allows the occupant to see how their lifestyle affects energy use- watching it spike when the air conditioning is turned on, seeing how low it can get when the home is empty. Also, the lights underneath will turn from blue to red if the home’s energy usage is running unusually high, giving the viewer a quick look into the home’s overall energy health.

What is one of the simplest and easiest ways to start saving energy immediately? Hibernation! If bears can do it, why not your computer? Move over Goldilocks, because we’re about to show you an energy saving tip that is juuuust right.

When was the last time you washed your dishes at 3am? Probably never, and yet if you have a tank-based water heater a huge percentage of your monthly utility bill goes to heating water at times when you don’t need it. Tankless* (or “on-demand”) water heaters can save you money in three major ways: they provide hot water only when you need it, where you need it and do not suffer from standby (when heated water is just sitting in the tank) heat loss.

One great source of home energy usage is your electric appliances. Between lighting, refrigerators and the numerous other machines Americans use, about 30 percent of your home energy usage goes to power appliances. And while you may not be willing to give any of them up entirely, you can reduce your consumption anyway, by using energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.

When you conduct over 3000 Home Energy Audits per year you’re bound to run into some interesting opinions. Many people believe certain things about home energy consumption that are just not true. These “Energy Myths” have often been inherited from one generation to the next. “Grandma always said…” is the typical preface to many of these energy myths. But a whole lot has changed in the last 50-100 years that makes grandma’s recommendations obsolete. Sorry Grandma. So after hearing many different Energy Myths from many different energy customers, the staff of Conservation Consultants got together and compiled some of the most common ones into a list of… drum roll please…

Are you interested in installing an alternative energy system in your home, but can’t swallow the price of solar panels or wind turbines? Let the federal and state government help pay the bill! New tax credit laws have recently been passed by Congress and state legislatures, including Pennsylvania’s, which help corporate, business, private, non-profit and agriculture sectors, as well as homeowners, to pay for alternative energy systems. This is the government’s way of encouraging individuals and groups to save energy and money by utilizing the growing capabilities of energy systems that don’t depend on an outside power company. By creating your own power and either using it right away, storing it in a battery system, or selling it back to your electric company (see the article on Net Metering) you can keep tons-literally tons-of harmful pollutants from being released into the air, water and soil.

Electric bills are perhaps the most confusing because usage is measured in units of kilowatt-hours or kWh, which is something that you can’t actually see or measure in the usual way like gas and water. Simply put, kWh are the amount of electricity used by 1,000 watts in one hour. Electric meters don’t specifically record kWh, the difference read between one month and the next must be multiplied by the ‘meter multiplier.’ This number, which is usually 12, converts the number that the meter reads into kWh, a number that can then be multiplied by the electric rate. This electric rate is actually the sum of several customer charges including generation, transmission and distribution. The current rate of electricity in the Pittsburgh Area (through the Duquesne Light Company) is $0.11/kWh, but this rate is subject to change as the utility company petitions the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) for a rate increase.

In a home that has gas heat, this is almost always the largest bill in the household. Gas usage is measured in Mcf or 1,000s of cubic feet of gas and is charged on a slightly more changeable rate than other commodities. This is because gas supply is provided by sources outside of the local area and the gas commodity charge is dependent on market availability (just as gasoline prices vary day by day). As a result of this sometimes gas companies have to include a ‘gas cost adjustment’ on a bill, which can be very confusing as it adds more numbers into an already confusing mix. Since the projected cost of gas is not always what the actual costs ends up being, the gas company makes a ‘cost adjustment,’ either slightly increasing or decreasing the monthly charge.Gas bills usually fluctuate based on the seasons, higher in the colder months and lower in the warmer months, because most heating systems run on gas. When you look at your usage history graph you should see a spike around the winter months and a decrease once spring comes. It helps to be aware of all the gas-consuming appliances in your household, if you don’t already know this, go through room-by-room and check. Gas appliances may include furnace, stove, dryer, in-wall space heaters, hot water tanks and fireplaces. Once you have this information you can address any seasonal spike as well as your yearlong usage with several gas-conserving techniques that include: