Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland
I tried to get a better idea by looking at the bills from the fall, but due to varying temps it was hard to see any solid numbers other then that our bill was lower, judging just from this single bill so far where the heating degree days were identical to last year we had an 18% reduction in natural gas used but closer to a 22% reduction in out of pocket heating costs because of the increased rates for natural gas and that is where the long term savings gets hard to track because most people just look at the dollar amount.
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Calculating therms (or kWh) used per heating degree day for the same billing period before and after the insulation / weatherization project (i.e. December '09 and '10) will give you a good basis for comparison. This assumes that your other gas or electricity uses are comparable, but it is much better than nothing.
That said, an 18% reduction in energy use is quite respectable! And with an increase in natural gas prices means you save even more $.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland
There are alot of banks that have poor interest rates and are only paying a quarter to a half of a percent and long term, multi year certificates at the bank are in the 2 to 3% range, I figure my insulation is giving me at least a 10% interest rate, but as I said, I'll know more next month, what I do know is that everyone else in my neighborhood is complaining about their high heating bills, some of them were wise enough to take advantage of the $45 energy audits this past year and are having their houses sealed up, everyone else just turning their thermostats down to the mid 50's.
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As energy prices continue to climb, more and more people will figure out how important energy efficiency truly is.