Home Energy Audit

Andrew Zmijewski
Information on the home
● 15 rooms not counting closets or bathrooms in other rooms
● 4700 square feet
● 4 people
● 22 corded lights another 42 with 100 bulbs that I can’t measure
● Mostly LED lights, others being replaced with LED as they die
● Mostly N/S double pane windows, some E/W
● 3 separate thermostats, currently off, 72 day/68 night in winter
● 9ft. Ceilings
● $148 electric bill per month
Disclaimer
It was not realistic to have a true energy audit of my home. I can only measure
things with cords and even some of those things were too hard to get to or
measure quickly. I was able to gather some meaningful data but it is not
representative of the full energy usage of my home. Also, all the surface
temperatures may not be 100% accurate just because some lights may take a
long time to heat up and they might not have been at their maximum temperature
when I measured.
Energy usage by device
Device Usage in watts Hours of usage Operating cost per Surface
per month month based on temperature when
$0.105/kWh rate hot or turned on

Mom and Dad’s 9.74 70 $0.07 45

identical lamps

Bonus room lamp 9.28 30 $0.03 80

Upstairs hallway 14.06 285 (on a timer) $0.42 57.5

lamp

My brother’s lamp 8.9 120 $0.11 35.6

Living room lamp 108.4 2 $0.02 70

Downstairs 8.64 232.5 (on a timer) $0.21 51.2
hallway lamp

Kitchen lamp 12.5 240 (on a timer) $0.32 73

Family room lamp 9.4 270 (on a timer) $0.27 40

Study lamp 304 at full 50 $1.60 85.3

brightness

Desk lamp 3.68 90 $0.03 35.5

Family room 43 .5 <$0.01 106

lights

Elliptical 2.7 on, 1.75 off 719 plugged in, 1 $0.13 26.5
on

Coffee maker 13.5 on, .72 off 717.5 plugged in, $0.06 59
2.5 on
Microwave 5.6 off, 17.2 on 1 on, 719 off $0.42 27

Toaster 13 1 <$0.01 320

Refrigerator 14.9 normally, 55 719 normal, $1.13 24

when dispensing 1 water
ice, 48 for water

Me and my 1.09 720 $0.16 27.6

brother’s identical
alarm clocks

Mini fridge 75 usually but it 720 $5.67 18.7

cycles

Printer .23 when off, 720 $0.02 23

didn’t measure
for on but it would
be negligible
2 Amazon Alexas 2 720 $0.30 28.5

Ordinary iphone 6.5 600 $0.41

charger

Wildly efficient .1 600 $0.01

iphone charging

Computer 1.9 400 $0.08

charging x2

Nintendo Switch 1.75 off, average 670 off, 50 on $0.19 33

of 12 when on
depends on game
and part of game

Switch TV .33 off, 12.2 on 670 off, 50 on $0.09 35

Wii 1.75 off, 14 on 2 on, 718 off $0.13 35.5

Mom’s clock .92 720 $0.07 25.3

Dad’s clock 1.82 720 $0.14 27.3

Family room 41 off, 145 on 600 off, 120 on $4.41 31

power strip/tv
mostly

Total $16.51/$148
Which devices use the most energy? Least?
On full brightness, the lamp in the study uses the most energy at over 300 watts. Next is the
family room power strip (145), the living room lamp (108.4), the mini fridge (75), and the
family room lights (43). These are the values at full use. When they aren’t in use the mini
fridge uses the most (75) then the family room power strip (41) and they use the most power
overall at 36.32% and 26.71% respectively out of what I measured. Of course what I
measured only added up to 16 dollars a month which is only a fraction of our total energy
bill. There are many more lights and appliances and devices that I was unable to measure.
The devices with the lowest watts usage are the efficient chargers (.1), the printer (.23), and
the alarm clocks (.92) (1.09 x2) (1.82). Since these devices are used a lot, the devices with
the least kWh per month are the family room lights due to rarely being used and the toaster
which uses no power while not in use and is only used for 2 or so minutes at a time even
though it is used often. They both add up to less than a cent per month.
Background energy, surface temperature, usage per person
Since no device is ever going to be used for most of the time, the devices with the most
background or resting energy use the most energy in total. As lights went, lights that used more
energy were generally hotter though there was a pretty weak correlation.

According to this data, my parents use much more energy than my brother and I. This is because I
split the mini fridge between them since it is a wine fridge. This is a reason why this can’t be
calculated reliably since determining who uses what is hard. If I only count things that are for
personal uses then I use the most followed by my dad, brother, and mom. This is still a biased list
since it was easier for me to count my things and something like my parents’ tv did not get
counted. Some comparisons I can do between us 4 is that my dad’s alarm clock uses the most
energy and my mom’s uses the least. My brother’s lamp uses more energy than my parents’. My
desk lamp is even more efficient. The chargers that my brother and I typically use are much less
efficient than the one’s my parents use. I also had a lot more energy use because I use the study
lamp the most and that is super inefficient.
Carbon Footprint
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 1 kWh produces
about 0.99 pounds of Carbon Dioxide. This means that my home generates about
1,400 pounds of Carbon Dioxide every month just from electricity. The mini fridge
alone is generating over 53 pounds of this and the family room power strip is
another 41 and a half kWh. Something with more average use like the nintendo
switch generates only about 1.8 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per month. The EIA
says that 1 BTU emits 117 pounds of carbon dioxide. The EPA says 1 therm emits
11.7 pounds which is what unit my natural gas bill is in. This covers only the
fireplace, hot water heater, and two furnaces. This means that in January when we
use the most natural gas, we emit 2,166 pounds of Carbon Dioxide. In June, that
number is only 635 pounds.
How can my family be more efficient?
Many of the devices in my home use energy even while they are not in use though
many also do not. The lamps are mostly good because they don’t use use any
energy when they are off. Some of they are very inefficient when they are on and
some are on a timer so they are on very often. We could invest in LED light bulbs
which could save a lot of energy. My dad could unplug the coffee maker after he
uses it and we could do this with many other things like the printer, blender, or
elliptical. We could even unplug tvs and consoles when we are done using them
though that may be quite a hassle for some of those. We could also consider not
having the timers on our lamps as long which would save a lot of energy. We could
also invest in more of the efficient chargers.
How does energy use compare between different
parts of the country? Does climate play a role?
Energy use between different states appears to be correlated to climate. It also
appears to be related in politics to some way though this could not be right depending
on the price of energy in some states. The states which use the most energy per capita
are North Dakota, Montana, Missouri, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The states which
use the least energy per capita are Hawaii, California, Utah, Florida, and Nevada. At
first glance the states using more energy are clearly more northern states than the
ones using the least. The top 5 energy users rank 2, 5, 6, 28, and 33 in coldest
climates. The bottom 5 energy users rank 1, 2, 12, 28, and 32 in warmest climates. Out
of the ten coldest states, their average rank for energy use is 15.7 For the ten warmest
it is 34. This clearly shows that colder climate states are more likely to spend more on
energy but it is not an extremely strong correlation.
How does energy use compare between different
parts of the country? Does climate play a role?
Since it is fresh in my head, there does seem to be a political correlation as well. Going
off the 2016 election map the average blue state is ranked 33.71 in energy usage and
the average red state is ranked 19.55. Climate doesn’t really influence where those
states are so this shows that red states are more likely to use more energy per capita
however it is not as strong of an indicator as climate. Out of the ten states where
energy costs the most, 5 of them are also in the bottom ten for energy use. For the ten
with the cheapest energy, only three are in the top ten for use. Out of the 20 states with
the most expensive energy only Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are top 20 for
use and they are also among the ten coldest. I believe cost definitely has an effect
here. I think that climate, politics, and cost of energy in that order all play a big
connected role in energy usage in different parts of the country.
Sources
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=74&t=11#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20to
tal%20U.S.%20electricity,of%20CO2%20emissions%20per%20kWh
.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=73&t=11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therm#cite_note-6

https://www.eia.gov/state/seds/seds-data-complete.php?sid=US#Consumption

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-temperatures-by-state