Energy is great stuff, and in Northern California we use a lot of it to get around, power our homes, and produce the goods and services that make up our economy. Many people think of energy efficiency and renewable energy as expensive. In fact, they can save you money. The purpose of this guide is to help you decide what kind of energy to use to get the most power for your dollar, and to use it to more efficiently to produce the least CO2 pollution, to reduce your “carbon footprint.”

Of course, there are other environmental effects to energy use, besides CO2 pollution. Some of the types of electricity production which have the smallest CO2 emissions, such as hydroelectric and nuclear power, have other, very serious, adverse environmental consequences, that must also be taken into account. But for many people, the cost of energy is the first consideration. And C02 pollution levels can be hard to get a handle on. So those are the factors that this guide focuses on, and will help you to calculate.

Before we go further, let’s state the obvious. The cheapest energy you will ever buy is one you don’t. Conservation is the first principle, both in saving money on energy and reducing the adverse environmental effects of energy use. But, if you intend to live “on the grid” and plan to drive a vehicle, you will need to make choices in the type of energy you buy, and the way you use it.

As you read on, you probably will see that you use both primary and secondary fuels. Hydrocarbon fuels derived from fossil deposits, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, propane and natural gas, are such primary fuels, which you burn directly in your vehicles or home appliances. Electricity is a secondary fuel, produced by converting other forms of energy to the very versatile “juice.”

Home Fuels

For many home uses, grid electricity is the only practical alternative. But for some uses, electricity has a high price. You’ve probably heard of fuel cells, which may well be game changers for efficient electricity production in the future. But for now, your utility burns fossil fuels to create mechanical energy, then converts that energy to electricity. The process has improved quite a bit since Thomas Edison first did it about 130 years ago, but it still has poor energy conversion efficiency. Only about 40% of the energy contained in the fossil fuel, typically natural gas or coal, makes it through the power line to your home. The other 60%  still has to be paid for - by you - in your electric bill. And despite some renewable and nuclear energy content, fossil fuels produce most grid electricity. So, your electric appliances are actually getting their heat (largely) from natural gas, but they are doing it indirectly, inefficiently, and expensively.

To save money, and reduce your carbon footprint, it’s usually beneficial to reduce your grid electricity use wherever possible, both by conservation, and replacing electricity with renewable and conventional primary fuels. The chart at this interactive link, builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/Fuels/FuelCompare.htm, will help you to find your savings. It translates different types of energy measurements to common values, what it costs (the prices printed here approximate Spring 2010 local prices) and how much C02 pollution is created.

You can go online, enter the unit costs from your own energy bills, the efficiency ratings of your appliances (the default values are typical) and see exactly what savings another fuel may offer you. Be sure to also check out the links at the site for more excellent energy information and advice. A kilowatt hour (KWH) is 1000 watts consumed for 1 hour. Another way to think about this is that it’s enough electricity to run a 100-watt lightbulb for 10 hours. Natural gas is measured on your bill in therms. As you can see, (PG&E) natural gas prices are relatively low right now, but remember that, unlike electricity, they change month-to-month. If you heat with wood, you probably already know that a cord is 128 cubic feet. The calculator translates the different fuels into cost in dollars, and CO2 emissions per 100K BTU of heat, in the two columns to the right.

Many home energy uses require electricity. But if you need energy to produce heat, you’re almost always    better off using primary fuels, rather than electricity, even though prices are often lower for electric appliances. Large cost and CO2 pollution savings can be had by replacing electric resistance heating appliances, which may account for a very large percentage of your electric bill, with natural gas or propane.

Electric water heaters (except for heat pumps), clothes dryers, stoves, and space heaters are among the biggest money pits. Look at it this way. It takes 100 BTUs of natural gas to get the heat your utility converts to electricity, to get you about 40 BTUs of electric heat for your hot shower. This is the main reason you can cut your energy cost and CO2 pollution by half, or even more, by switching from electricity to gas. As you can see, propane gives almost the same CO2 savings, but tends to be higher priced than natural gas.

You can reduce your energy bills even more significantly by using renewable energy. When many people think of “renewables,” they think of huge wind, solar, biomass, or geothermal projects at the other end of a power line, or of photovoltaic solar rooftop installations. But in fact, many North California residents use “renewables,” solar, biomass, and geothermal energy, as primary home fuels.

Passive solar is simply orienting your home to take advantage of sunlight to heat your home in winter, and to avoid unwanted solar heating in the summer. You can tune your home’s passive solar heating by adding or removing shade, as required. Deciduous trees shading windows can make a significant cut in your summer AC costs. Consider solar water heating, often the most cost-effective home renewable energy improvement you can make, thanks to our sunny climate. Home biomass means wood or pellet stoves and inserts. You can usually buy these local renewable fuels at prices lower than fossil fuels.

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