Utility Bill Breakdown

Below is a portion of an email that Mike and I received from ENACT this week. It breaks down our Gas/Electric/Water from 2009 and so far in 2010 and tells us how we're doing so far. ENACT has also given us a goal for the upcoming Year-of-the-Challenge.

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Gas:

Average Madison Gas Usage: 856 therms/year

Your 2009 Gas Usage: 254 therms/year

Your 2010 Gas Usage: 210 therms/year (if you were to continue doing what you have done this year so far)

Congratulations! Your gas bill is very impressive. You are 71% better than the Madison average starting off. Sonya and I are very impressed and we can tell that the two of you have done a lot to make your place more sustainable. Keep up the good work!

Electric:

Average Madison Electric Use: 7200 kWh/year

Your 2009 Average Electric Use: 5,934 kWh/year

Your 2010 Average Electric Use (Continuing what you are doing now): 5,124 kWh/year

Good Job! According to your numbers in 2009 you are 18% below the Madison average. This is really great but Sonya and I think you can do better. Your goal kWh for the year should be 4,320. This means that coming into the fall your kWh/month should not be more than 360. Make sure you unplug those appliances when you are not home!

Water:

Average Madison Water Use (for two people): 47,450 gal/year

Your 2009 Water Usage (per person breakdown): 28,257 gal/year

Ok so the good news is that no matter how you break it down you are right around 40% below the Madison average. You you are 41% better than the average for Madison! You guys are doing great, but imagine how much you can do by making some simple changes.
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So given these numbers I'm very happy with our gas use...though I'm sure it's so low because of the size of the condo and the fact that we have only turned on that air-conditioner twice this summer. I'm a little concerned with our electricity use but I'm not sure how much we'll need to do to reduce it. I think we are pretty good about turning off lights when we're not in the room, except for my bad habit of leaving the bathroom light on all morning when I'm getting ready for work. In my defense I'm in and out of the bathroom a lot in the morning...but luckily I have Mike to remind me of this wrong-doing and surprisingly even Mike's dad. Thanks guys, now I know what you two gents say about me when I'm not around! It's great though because now I'm making an effort to change my ways.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

In addition, I've noticed that after I cleaned the refrigerator coils, some of the food was too cold...ice cold... frozen even! Shockingly, I think cleaning the coils actually worked! We've turned the cooling system up...umm...wait or is it down? Either way the food is no longer frozen and I hope that means that the refrigerator is not working as hard and saving us some electricity. Mike also turned down the temperature on the water-heater which should help. I suppose we will see if there is an improvement when we get our next electric bill.


In other news, we have purchased our clothes line and it should arrive next week with plenty of good weather left in the summer to use it!

We purchased this one off of Realgoods.com :


http://www.realgoods.com/product/home-outdoor/household/laundry/retractable+clothesline.do

I know that a cheap rope would have done the trick, but as we share the backyard with seven other lovely earthly beings, we thought the retractable line would be more considerate! Bring on the sunshine and the wind...and the scent of freshly dried clothing off the line!