The Complete Guide to Green Building & Remodeling Your Home: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply by Martha Maeda

Author:Martha Maeda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: green building, environmentaly friendly, building, remodel, remodeling, eco-friendly, green materials, green home, green construction
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Evaluating your Energy Consumption

To determine your energy needs for a new home or to calculate the pay-off from using a PV system, you have to look at your current electricity consumption. A solar contractor knows how to evaluate your household energy use and determine the size, type, and number of solar panels and other components you will need for your solar system. It is important to do this during the design stage, so that the house plans include enough space for the solar panels and other components. Special windows, roof tiles, and other architectural features can serve as solar panels. The house can be designed so that solar panels are placed where they receive the most exposure to sunlight, adequate ventilation, and protection from hazardous winds.

Understanding your electricity bill

Energy is measured in British thermal units (Btus). A Btu is equal to 250 calories, the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. This is approximately the amount of heat produced by lighting a match. A Btu is such a tiny unit of energy that larger quantities of energy are measured in quads — a quad is one quadrillion Btus. According to the DOE, an average U.S. household consumed 4.7 quads of electricity in 2009.

Electric power is measured in watts. Your utility company bills you for the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity you use in a month. One kilowatt-hour (kWh) is one hour of using electricity at a rate of 1,000 watts. When you want to compare the cost of electricity produced by a solar system to the cost of electricity from your utility, you must look at the cost per kWh. Gather your electricity bills from the past year and add up the total number of kWh for the year. Divide the total amount you paid for electricity by the total number of kWh. This will tell you how much you paid per kWh for your electricity.

The table below, using data from the DOE, shows how much the average customer paid per kWh for electricity provided by utilities in June 2009 and 2010. In some states, electricity is several cents cheaper than in others; this is determined by the type and cost of fuel and the type of power plant used to generate the electricity, how the plant is financed and managed, and the distance that the electricity has to travel to reach consumers.

Average cost of electricity per kWh (in cents) in June 2009 and June 2010 for U.S. residences by region and state

Census

Division

and State

June-10

June-09

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