Wednesday, March 30, 2011

PSE Home Energy Report

I was so excited to receive my PSE Home Energy Report last week. I am a moderately competitive person and was irritated that in the last report I only got a "good" rating. I blamed my mom who was here running the dryer all week after the baby was born, I blamed the fact that we're home all day compared to neighbors who work away from home, I blamed the unusually cold year, and I blamed the amount of laundry I have to do (between 12 and 15 loads a week). But Good News: I've improved! I got a "Great" rating (the highest) and was well below the average of the 'most efficient' neighbors. PSE gets these ratings by classifying homes into similar size categories and similar location. I still use a lot of electricity. The computers are on all the time, lights are accidentally left on, the babies sleep with a fan on all night and at naptimes and I run the dryer up to 15 times a week. I use more electricity than the most efficient neighbors. The gas however made all the difference. We keep our house at 65 during the day and 55 at night. I think that's much lower than most folks. I'm hoping the March/April report shows us doing well again. We've been working on turning our computers off at night and I'll be able to hang clothes to dry again soon. I'm already resisting turning on the heat if the day is supposed to be warm because the house heats up to 65 all by itself if the sun is out. I'll keep you posted. Katie
Posted by Katie at 1:41 PM

3 comments:

  1. LisaMarch 31, 2011 at 2:15 PM

    If you were here in Houston, you'd probably keep your house up in the 80's to save on using the AC instead! Some people here are trying to convince me that sweating is refreshing and healthful, so maybe that would be a good thing?

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  2. KracindaApril 2, 2011 at 10:29 PM

    Brrr....

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  3. KatieApril 3, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    Yeah 65 is chilly so we always wear socks and layers. We also turn up the heat when company is coming over. In the summer we pay for more electricity running fans all night to cool the house down. It has gotten up into the 90's in our lots-of-sun-facing-windows house. Phew!

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So, what do you think?

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