This article launches The Hive, a series of projects designed to harvest the collective intelligence of Slate readers to solve practical problems. (Read a more complete explanation of The Hive here.) In each Hive, Slate readers will submit proposals that will be voted on and commented on by readers, and judged by experts. Together readers and judges will choose a dozen finalists, the top five ideas, and a winner.
In this first project, The Efficient Life, we’re seeking the best ideas for helping people use less energy at home and save money. You can submit your proposal below and scan all the proposals submitted by readers so far. But before you do that, you may want to know more about the project.
The Efficient Life
Energy efficiency is in vogue. Most people are concerned about emissions and global warming, but even if you are not, you’ve surely realized that reducing energy use is an excellent way to free up money for better uses. Indeed, an economic consensus is emerging that America can raise its national operating income by focusing on energy efficiency and alternative energy—and that doing so would create jobs, improve the health of the planet, and free us from the tyranny of foreign oil producers.
For a typical American family, household energy is 4.46 percent of total consumption, according to the consumer price index. (And for many families, heating, cooling, and lighting homes costs a lot more than that.) There’s never been a better time to try to save cash by saving energy. We’re in a period in which family income hasn’t been growing, which means the only way for many Americans to feel richer is to cut costs. What’s more, the government is eager to subsidize our efficiency efforts. The Obama administration, for example, has followed up its cash for clunkers program with a cash for caulkers program. And there has been an explosion in energy-saving products and services available.
Most of us have no desire to forswear energy use entirely, like No Impact Man. But we all have the incentive of basic home economics. For me, reducing energy use is less a question of global warming (though I’d like my kids to be able to see the snows of Kilimanjaro one day), or national security (though I’d like to stop enriching petro-tyrants) than one of accounting. Why spend more on electricity, heating oil, and propane than I have to—especially if government policy and new technology allows me to maintain the same quality of life while using less energy?
But I’m stumped about what I should actually do. I’m inundated with competing claims. Each old-school light bulb replaced with a compact fluorescent saves $30 over the life of the bulb; proper air sealing can save 10 percent of your heating bill; homeowners can save $180 a year by using programmable thermostats intelligently. And so on. It’s hard to assess the accuracy of these numbers unless you actually track energy use over an entire year. What’s more, the information we receive on home energy use is frustratingly incomplete. My Connecticut Light & Power bills tell me how much electricity I use, on average, per day, but nothing about how that use changes over the course of the day and how much is due to lighting or air conditioning. My heating-oil company simply tells me how many gallons I’ve burned over a period of time. I have no idea how much electricity that second refrigerator in the basement consumes, or how much I’d save by keeping the house 2 degrees cooler in the winter and 2 degrees warmer in the summer. The standard measure of miles per gallon allows people to compare a Honda Accord with a Hummer. But few houses are built exactly alike, and energy use varies significantly depending on geography, demography, equipment, and habits. When I asked my energy providers what level of energy use was typical energy for a house like mine, they gave me vague, non-judgmental answers. It’s quite possible that someone living in an older, 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom house could use more energy than a family living in a new 6,000-square-foot McMansion.
In my house in Connecticut, which is neither too big nor too small, part of which is several decades old and part of which is a few years old, we used 19,124 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2009. And in the 2008-09 heating season, we used 1,656 gallons of heating oil. Is that a lot or a little? I have no idea. In this, the first of Slate’s Hive projects, I’m going to attempt to measure and examine my home’s energy usage and try to reduce it. In doing so, I’ll perhaps illustrate many of the challenges and obstacle that others face. Like many Americans, I have an interest in efficiency and alternative energy but don’t pursue it wholeheartedly. We’ve chosen to buy our electricity from a wind-power provider, and I have a few compact fluorescent bulbs (mostly in out-of-the-way places). I have a plastic pool cover that has reduced my propane consumption, but I still go through a couple of tanks of propane in the summer. I’d like to do better, but don’t want to change my lifestyle or make massive investments, or spend every waking moment monitoring my use. So I need your help.
The challenge for you is to suggest useful, practical ways for me—or really, for anyone, to live a more energy-efficient life. The way I see it now, your suggestion could address one of four possible areas.
•Personal behavior. What can I do—in a non-obsessive way—that will best reduce my energy use without ruining my life? (You could, for example, suggest that I turn the heat off entirely, but that’s not realistic.) How much can be gained just by making marginal—not radical—changes?
•Software. I’d like to outsource as much energy saving as possible to smarter technology. For example, you could tell me the absolute best, easiest way to program a thermostat.
•Hardware. What capital investments should I make that will save me the most energy and money? (A particularly interesting related question: What is the best way to take advantage of tax credits to defray that spending?)
• Information. What information should my utility company (or others) be sharing with me that will spur me to use less energy?
These are the four categories I have thought of, but you’re the brilliant Slate reader—you may have an entirely different kind of suggestion. Bring it on!
I’ve set myself a modest budget ($3,000) and a modest goal of reducing energy use by 10 percent, though I’m open to the possibility that I could save more. Of course, I recognize that every home presents its own challenges and opportunities. And asking people to make assessments based on a brief article and video is like asking physicians to diagnose patients remotely. But I’d like to tap into the wisdom that you have accumulated. Lots of Slate readers have experience with trying to improve energy efficiency: as consumers, as landlords, as business owners, as energy suppliers, as contractors and professionals. What has worked for you? What have you learned? And what could work for me?
Over the next few weeks, with your help, I’ll be exploring these issues in articles, and in a live event in Washington, D.C., on March 10. And you, I hope, will be sending in fascinating proposals, which other readers and our expert judges will be debating and rating, in their quest to choose 12 finalists, and ultimately, five top ideas and a winning idea.
