Compare Your Energy Bills to Your Neighbors’

A front-page story in Friday’s News & Observer reported the very high cost of electricity in some areas of eastern North Carolina. The story pointed out that electricity costs are expected to go up in the Duke Power service area as well.

The story gave examples of homeowners facing monthly electricity bills in the $400 to $600 range. What was striking was the absence of any explanation of how many kilowatt hours of electricity these homeowners were using. How does the amount of electricity these homeowners used last month compare with the amount you or I used that month?

Durham residents can use Clean Energy Durham’s new Home Energy Share and Compare, an online feature that allows homeowners to type in the number of kilowatt hours they used each month and then compare their use to that of other households in Durham. It is possible to compare only with households with a similar number of occupants and house size, or to compare with all of Durham.

This helpful tool is more valuable the more people enter their data. So give it a try!  The more we know, the more likely it is we’ll make good decisions.

Compare Your Energy Use with Other Durham Residents

Today we’re launching a free online tool, Home Energy Share and Compare, which quickly and anonymously allows Durham households to compare their energy use.

“The unique feature of this tool is that it enables people to compare energy use for a particular month of weather in Durham,” explains Tom Higgins, Clean Energy Durham’s Energy Education Director. “You can compare yourself to households with similar size homes and a similar number of occupants.”

One feature of the Home Energy Share and Compare is that neighbors can form teams for comparison purposes. Sharing energy helps encourage efficiency; last year, one block in Watts Hospital–Hillandale neighborhood compared energy use for several months and discovered that one house used a lot more energy. That household was surprised and so they did some investigation and found several very inexpensive ways to save a lot of energy.

The online Home Energy Share and Compare will be more fun and valuable the more Durham residents input their data, so add your data today!

Home Energy Share and Compare was created by FireStream Media, a multimedia studio located in downtown Durham. It was funded with support from the UNC Environmental Finance Center, the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Office of Durham and Regional Affairs at Duke University, and MindWorks Multimedia, Inc.