Comparing Your Home’s Energy Use to Your “Neighbors”

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website

Part of an energy auditors’ job is energy analysis, which includes analyzing historical energy consumption data to determine if usage is as expected.  One method is to compare a home’s energy use to some average (the local rural electricity provider I contract with calls this “compared to your neighbor’s”).  This average could be the national average, but it’s better to compare at a more local level, such as by state.  There are a few sources of this information, one that I have been using is: U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – Independent Statistics and Analysis.  This dashboard provides me with several different energy consumption metrics, expressed in MMBtu’s and kWh, broken down by state and also displays national averages for the US (sorry my Canadian friends).

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