Energy audits to reduce your carbon footprint
Today’s carbon fast instruction is a little high tech for me!
it reads “Get a home energy audit from your local utility company. Find out how you can save resources and money by making small, inexpensive improvements to your home. Find out more from NSTAR and Energy Star.”
Well I’m a woman of self empowerment so I won’t be getting a local utility company to tell me what I already know. I’m learning everything I need from my electricity monitor. What could be better than a second by second readout of our energy consumption?
Here’s a list of what we do already and some of the things I know I could do to lessen my carbon footprint:
How we reduce carbon
Take daily electricity readings to give ourselves knowledge
Have LED lighting running from solar panels downstairs
Batch cook
Heat the radiators and water by wood during the winter
Have double glazing, cavity wall insulation and loft insulation
Have a tankless water heater for the kitchen sink
How we could reduce our carbon footprint
Utilising the electricity monitor readings to actually turn things off standby at night such as the router and computer peripherals
Adopt Sherry’s ‘light rule’ – she allows one light per person in her home; isn’t that great! Sometimes we leave lights on in the office or landing when we are all in the same room downstairs…
Install a downstairs shower to lessen our bath usage (this saves electricity in summer because we need to use an immersion heater for hot water)
Install an eco dan in a couple of rooms (air to air heater) instead of topping up with an electric convector heater
Make a solar oven / rocket stove during the summer and see if I can cook more for free
Ultimately we could move to a smaller house but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon!
What about you; do you have a ‘carbon wishlist’ of all the things you would like to achieve to lessen your carbon footprint or do you pretty much have minimal impact on the earth? Have you ever had a utility company do a home energy audit?