We love our homes and spend our hard-earned money kitting them out with all the latest mod-cons. But often homeowners neglect their energy efficiency options, even though they could potentially save you thousands in utility bills each year.
So take the time to look at these online tools for energy efficiency and see how you can save the pennies and the planet, one kilowatt at a time…
Practically Green
Practically Green is a website that gives users information on all the different things they can do to be more green-aware. Users can create a login, earn points for making greener lifestyle choices and share their scores using social media.
This site is a great introduction to the various sustainability options, for people who want to ‘go green’ but don’t know where to start.
TopTenUSA
This website contains rankings for the top 10 energy efficient household appliances on the market today, from TVs to refrigerators and washing machines. Each list tells you where the rating data was pulled from, which therefore makes it impartial.
This not-for-profit site focuses on improving overall energy efficiency in the home appliance marketplace. So check your appliances against the top tens here and see if you would consider buying a greener appliance in the future!
Energy Saving Calculator
Luma Lighting’s energy saving calculator is a feature that shows you energy saving light bulb facts like how much money you could save per year by switching your current bulbs to LEDs or CFLs. Just pop in your current bulb type, how many you have and what you’d like to switch to, to instantly see how much energy (and money!) you could be saving.
Standby Calculator
Bye Bye Standby offer a standby calculator that works out how much phantom energy (i.e. the tiny amounts of energy that appliances waste when left on standby) and how much money you could save per year by switching them off.
If you have never considered the cost of your standby convenience, this calculator is certainly an eye-opener.
Home Energy Generation Calculator
This online questionnaire from the Energy Saving Trust website asks you questions about your current home energy sources and suggests renewable home-energy alternatives you might want to consider, based on the answers you gave.
These tailor-made suggestions are meant to inspire home owners to look into wood fuel heating, solar energy or hydro energy to heat their homes.
Cash Back Calculator
If you do decide to make the move into renewable home energy sources, this cash back calculator can help you figure out how much money you will save in bills and how that money can go towards paying back the installation costs. If your house is running at high energy efficiency, you could even turn a profit!
Leafully
Leafully is a place where you can view how much you spend on all utility bills combined, as well as calculating your usage per day, month and year – phantom power included.
The site also shows you how many trees would need to be planted in order to offset the amount of pollution your house created per year which again is a bit of an eye-opener and may shock you into being more eco-aware.
What other online tools do you use to calculate your home’s energy efficiency? Share them below.
Thank you for sharing!