Energy use in one community home

The following is a brief account on energy use & the dual flush toilets as reported by one homeowner who moved in around September into a 3-bedroom house.

We set the thermostat downstairs at 68 in the evening, 60 at night, 68 again for a while in the morning, and 60 through the day. It is automatically programmed so I really don’t pay much attention to it, and it is so quiet that we are not aware of when it is actively heating and when it isn’t.

We keep the upstairs at 60 all the time, unless we have guests in the upstairs bedroom. Now, with the temperature during the day in the mid 60s, it doesn’t seem like the heat comes on at all and the inside temp stays at around 68-70 as long as we have a little sun.

We rarely need lights during the day, even when it is cloudy. With most of our lights being CFLs, I don’t expect that we use much energy on lighting.

The (dual flush) toilets do save water. If a home has about 10 flushes per day that’s a savings of 8 gallons/day, or almost 3000 gallons per year. With 17 homes with all dual flush (the downstairs only have one dual-flush) that’s almost 50,000 gallons/year for the project.