Energy Use in Your Home

By Gary Baker, Director of Marketing & Public Relations

The U.S. Energy Information Agency lists heating, cooling, water heating, lighting and refrigeration as the top five energy users in your home. The cost to heat your home typically makes up 40% of your total energy bill. As your Energy Cooperative, we encourage you take control of your energy use. By understanding how your home uses energy, you can determine ways to save energy and keep more money in your wallet.

Take control of your energy use

Your family’s comfort and personal preferences play a large part in your monthly energy use. It’s also influenced by the age and size of your home, your heating and cooling system and the temperature setting of your thermostat. Taking those into consideration, energy use varies widely from home to home, and what works for your neighbor may not be the best approach for you.

Use the SmartHub mobile app to take a close look at your energy use. Our meters supply hourly consumption data for electric and natural gas members. This allows you to view your energy use by the hour, day, week or year on the app and understand when you use the most energy. For instance, you may notice a spike in energy use as your family prepares to leave the house each morning and when everyone returns in the evening. Also, use might trend up over the holidays when more people are in your home more often.

SmartHub also charts the average temperature by day, which helps to show how temperature spikes and dips affect your energy use. The greater the difference between the inside and outside temperatures, the more energy it takes to keep your family comfortable, so you’ll see corresponding increases and decreases on your energy bills.

Let us help you

Our member services team can provide insight into your energy use. Give us a call at 1-800-255-6815 or visit our website to chat with a member service representative. We’re ready to answer your questions!

Sometimes, the best way for us to help you determine the cause of higher-than-expected energy use is to offer you an in-home energy audit. This analysis can identify how you use energy, determine where it’s being wasted and prioritize efficiency upgrades. Energy Advisor, Ray Crock, often helps our members uncover savings. If you can’t seem to get a handle on a high energy bill, our member services team can discuss this service with you in more detail.

We encourage you to visit myenergycoop.com/save for resources and tips on lowering your energy consumption. Remember, we’re a cooperative. We were built by our members in 1936 to provide safe, reliable and affordable energy, and our mission has not changed. We want to be a trusted energy partner for all of our members. Let us know how we can help you—that’s why we’re here.