Saving on energy is possible
By Lethbridge Herald on March 6, 2025.
Editor,
Re: Home energy use in 2024
Lashia and I live in a 70-year-old 1,000-square-foot bungalow without exterior updates. We use natural gas to heat our water and home; electricity for the stove. A Lennox high efficiency furnace replaced the defective one in 2023 and a gas fireplace was installed in February 2024. We lower the blinds at supper time and turn the heat off at bed time. We remind each other to turn lights off when they are not needed. These actions do not compromise our comfort.
From the monthly Enmax statements, we calculated that we used 17 Giga joules less energy in 2024 than the previous five-year average. This represents a reduction of 16,000 cubic feet of natural gas and associated greenhouse gases. The savings in dollars was $30 ($1.88 per Gj) which is a small fraction of the administrative fees. Our electricity use for 2024 was 2884 kWh. Our annual heat and electricity consumption is much below the Alberta home average.
Klaus Jericho
Lethbridge
7-6
And if every homeowner did this, what a big difference it would make on not wasting nonrenewable resources and lowering emissions that are unsustainably heating up the world.
your electric consumption seems way below average – amazing.
our experience, while not to be careless, is to stay comfortable. it is good to be mindful to not be wasteful, but in the context of savings, there is not much to be saved by cutting back a whole lot as the ridiculous bevy of fees sucks by far th most from our pockets.
why are we not each allowed to charge fees for their doing business with us? seems only fair.
if there was a high power, high quality natural gas generator that would allow us to get off the electric grid, we would do it – it would return over a thousand dollars a year in saved electric fees.