Average Energy Usage Impact Calculator

We managed to find a new and improved household energy usage calculator courtesy of The Berkeley Institute of the Environment. The calculator is a very easy to use and shockingly accurate tool which guides the user through several easy steps before providing a detailed breakdown of your energy consumption and environmental impact.

Try the Impact Calculator here;

We calculated our household and personal energy usage and the results showed us that our home energy consumption accounts for the majority of our impact and if we can halve just this aspect we will be well below the average for a similar household here in Texas, we would even be close to the U.S. Average. My suspicion is that we consume most of our energy through air conditioning providing heating and cooling for our home. Cooling systems are a must have here in Texas but we clearly need to focus more on improving house sealing and air conditioning efficiency.

Initiatives such as Google.org’s powermeterare starting to make actively monitoring and reducing our impact alot easier.  We have already signed up with Google to receive the latest information on the very intriguing powermeter program.

Google.org's Powermeter Program

Studies show that access to our household’s personal energy information would likely save between 5–15% on monthly bills. Also for every six households that save 10% on electricity, for instance, we would reduce carbon emissions by as much as taking one conventional car off the road!

We plan to start using the Google Powermeter as soon as it becomes available to the public and will try to find other ways to monitor and reduce our power usage in the meantime.