For the Hohm

I ran across a Beta Test of a wonderful *FREE* program by Microsoft. It is called "Microsoft Hohm." Not only does it give you great tips that can reduce your power bills, but, by inputting your "history" with the gas and electric utilities, it generates charts and shows you how much you are spending each month/year/etc. on these bills.

Have you ever really sat down and looked at the power and gas bills as they come in? Do you just write a check and move on to next bill?

For example:
My roomate and I- living in an 800 sq ft apartment- kept track of the statements from 3 years ago to present. By inputting the historical data, we can see how much we really are paying for these "utility privileges".

Yearly electric $983
Yearly gas $320
=
Yearly power bill of $1303

Ouch! We've spent almost $10,000 in power bills since we moved into this apartment 7 years ago.

What was surprising to me was how much we pay for gas services on months we don't even use it. In my example the only thing, in the home, that uses gas is the furnace.

We have to pay a fee year-round for "Distribution and Service Charges"- even for a service we don't need 5 months out of the year.

Ex:
For the months with 0 gas usage in 2008 we paid $7.37 (5 months out of the year) = $36.85

For the months with 0 gas usage in 2009 we pay $14.67 (5 months out of the year) = $73.35

That is $110.20 we spent over 2 years-
for a service we didn't even use.

*And that is just the gas bill*


On to the electricity........

The bill tells us "Price to compare: in order for you to save money, a new supplier must offer you a price lower than *Our service provider*'s price of $47.08, or 7.8 cents per kWh, for the same usage that appears on this bill. You may contact *them* for a written explanation of the price-to-compare message."

It states our electricity usage as 604 kWh.
Our Total Account Balance is= $74.45 for the month.

If we are paying 7.8 cents per kWh for 604 kWh the charge should be= $47.11

Yet our bill is $74.45. That is a difference of = $27.34 on this one bill ALONE.

Evidently we are also paying
-- A Customer Charge of $4.25/mo. To be a customer?!?
-- A Distribution Charge of $19.29
-- Transmission Related Charges of $4.70
-- And a Generation Rider of $3.83...........Every MONTH!

--That adds up to about $384.84 you pay in FEES to the Electric company each year.

Your actual kWh (when you account for all the fees) is = 12.3 cents per kWh

What they say you pay ---> 7.8 cents
What you actually pay ---> 12.3 cents

My point is READ YOUR BILL. Figure it out, and see how much you are spending just for the right to get electric and gas to your home. Better yet plug it all in to Microsoft Hohm and let the them show you what is really going on.

We also figured up- that the money we put into rent and utilities -now- would be more than the payment we'd make to buy a piece of land, build a small energy efficient home with daylighting, and power it with renewable energy..At today's interest rate (4.5% fixed) and a 15 year mortgage- we would still pay over $100 LESS each month and we'd have it paid off in 15 years.


Rent (no value to me), +power bill, +gas bill

Or

Own our own home, on our property, that provides its own energy and retire in 15 years?

At that- the quest for the perfect piece of land commences.

Good luck to you and feel free to update me with your results!!!

Welcome to the Sustainable Station

We, here at Sustainable Station, want to share with you a vision of the future.

A future that brings unity to communities
and proportions to our lives.
A future that measures the value
of a building by its
ecological footprint and energy efficiency rating.
A future borne of responsibility.
A future that WE can build.

What does your home do for you?
A "home" is often defined as:
-the place where one lives: a residence
-the dwelling places together with the family or social unit that occupies it: a household
-an environment offering security and happiness

What powers your home?

*Most likely your power company uses coal, gas, nuclear power, or hydro-electric power. Coal, gas, oil, and nuclear power deplete limited resources, AND cause pollution. Nuclear power is the cleanest, but takes quite a while and resources to build the plants. Not to mention the radioactive pollution it creates, that has to be stored forever.

Coal mining known as mountaintop removal alone has destroyed the landscape, and habitats around 495 mountains here in the U.S. so far. Learn more about this @ I love mountains.org

Also Kilowatt Ours is an excellent resource for education on energy production. They offer a video that is well worth the donation and a free school course designed to teach the next generation about the challenges we are facing.



Renewable Energy
Only a small portion of people in the world today are using the limitless resources of wind, the sun, water, geothermal power or biomass. These are also, unfortunately, currently the forms of producing electricity that is clean- and not as harmful to the environment.




What CAN your home do for you?
By carefully designing your home or making strategic changes to your existing home you can lower your energy costs and wean your household off of dirty energy and onto clean power. Small things such as switching out your lightbulbs to more energy efficient measures, to larger projects such as powering your home with solar or wind can make a big difference.



How recycling can benefit your home.
Using gently used items or non-perfect items in your home should be a matter of pride. There are several services to help you locate items that can be re-used and where to offer items you are done with.

-Freecycle
-ReUseIt
-Craigslist

There are also many items made from recycled things- such as recycled glass counter tops, insulation made from recycled newspaper or denim, art projects, recycled paint, and plenty of other ways! What can you think of to make something from something else?

Where does trash go?
In spite of our efforts in recent years to reduce waste, littering, and preserving our streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans- there is still a blanket of trash created by ocean currents about twice the size of Texas floating above Hawaii? It is refereed to by marine biologists as a continent of trash. The majority of that garbage arrived in our generation's lifetime.


What is this energy from trash I keep hearing about?
Some communities are setting up plants to extract the methane gas produced by landfills to use it for energy rather than have it contribute to the problem. This is a great solution but we do not have unlimited space for landfills on this planet. Keeping your plastic bottles, cans, cardboard, and newspapers separate from trash for the landfill will reduce waste and help preserve the environment of this planet we call home.

What matters to you in a home?

Do you need a big house with numerous rooms?
Space for all the "stuff" you have accumulated?
Do you just need somewhere to be your "home base?"

I'll explore the Tiny House Movement in a future post. Thanks for reading!