Check your power usage regularly
Earth Points10 
EaseMedium
Description
Globally, about 10% of climate pollution is related to electricity consumption in residential buildings, which means that this is a huge lever for us to combat climate change.
To monitor your progress and impact, regularly checking your power usage is a great place to start. Depending on your energy supplier, you can either check it in an app or your statement or look at your electricity meter. Monitoring your usage helps identify usage trends, peaks, and stray currents (energy flows due to wiring damage or supply system imbalances).
Seeing the energy usage and actual monetary costs can help you avoid unnecessary waste, see the impact of household improvements, and save money.
To monitor your progress and impact, regularly checking your power usage is a great place to start. Depending on your energy supplier, you can either check it in an app or your statement or look at your electricity meter. Monitoring your usage helps identify usage trends, peaks, and stray currents (energy flows due to wiring damage or supply system imbalances).
Seeing the energy usage and actual monetary costs can help you avoid unnecessary waste, see the impact of household improvements, and save money.
Tips
• The first and most important step is determining the best way to monitor your kWh usage, which is the most common measurement metric. Can you do this through your supplier's app, website, or monthly statements? Will you need to read your meter on your own to get a better sense of the trends? Start to look into it.
• Set a weekly or monthly reminder for yourself to check your usage. Once you get into the habit, it becomes a quick exercise to get a sense of your household trends.
• Be careful of how you interpret usage metrics from your energy supplier. Sometimes, your kWh usage will be estimated and not actual because your meter is not checked every month or in real-time. Look into it and take this into account when drawing conclusions over shorter periods of time.
• Does your supplier give you discounts for using energy at certain times of the day? Look into this as you are learning more about your energy usage and try to avoid using high-energy items during peak times.
• Update your energy profile in the Earth Hero app for an updated estimate of the impact of emissions and track your progress over time!
• Set a weekly or monthly reminder for yourself to check your usage. Once you get into the habit, it becomes a quick exercise to get a sense of your household trends.
• Be careful of how you interpret usage metrics from your energy supplier. Sometimes, your kWh usage will be estimated and not actual because your meter is not checked every month or in real-time. Look into it and take this into account when drawing conclusions over shorter periods of time.
• Does your supplier give you discounts for using energy at certain times of the day? Look into this as you are learning more about your energy usage and try to avoid using high-energy items during peak times.
• Update your energy profile in the Earth Hero app for an updated estimate of the impact of emissions and track your progress over time!
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Photo Credit
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash