Do You Know Where Your Energy Dollar Goes?

You’re paying a lot more for energy of all kinds these days—oil, gas, and electricity cost double (and in some cases, nearly triple) what they ran you just a few short years ago. The higher cost of energy is also reflected in the price of everything else you buy; energy-related price hikes have been shooting out of sight recently. (After all, everyone ’s an energy-consumer, including your grocer, delivery person, food packager, even your government— and everyone ’s going to pass on his or her increased energy costs to you in the form of higher prices.)

There’s not much you can do about your supermarket’s energy bills. However, on a direct, personal, home level, if you know where you’re spending money, you can draft a plan of attack to conserve and save some of that money by cutting down energy consumption. So, do you know where your energy dollars are going?

The greatest part of your energy budget goes toward keeping that house of yours warm and comfortable. Heating system fuels consume about 57 percent of the average family energy budget.

Another 15 percent pays for the hot water in your shower, bathtub, clothes washer, or kitchen sink.

The remaining 28 percent pays for cooking, lighting, running that toaster, the TV, the computer, the scanner, the fax machine, the vacuum cleaner, the hair dryer, and the dozens of other appliances we all depend on.

Remember, these are approximate figures. Obviously, if you live in a warm climate, you spend less to heat your house and more to cool it. And if you’re one of those self-reliant types with few (or even no) electrical appliances except your house lights, the proportions change again.

Regardless of the exact dollar figure, however, all of us can make some improvements, save some energy, and save some money.

We may have to spend some money now to save in the future, but lower fuel bills and lower utilities costs will very quickly pay back those expenditures. In fact, you should think of any home energy-saving improvement in your home as one-time investments virtually guaranteed to pay for themselves many times over! And a lot of savings can be realized without spending a dime …