We’ve talked before about a very cool green gadget called the Kill-O-Watt meter. Basically you plug it into your wall and plug an appliance into the meter. You leave it plugged in for a few days (or a few weeks for larger appliances) and you can find out how much energy an appliance is using. The meter can also guage how much energy you’re using overall on a daily basis – which can be super helpful if you’re trying to reduce your overall kilowatt usage on your electric bill – which means being greener and saving money!

The kill-o-watt meter is a great, and pretty inexpensive, way to really assess if you need to replace an older appliance with one that’s more energy efficient and also a great way to really understand your power consumption! After all, assessing your electric load is one of the first steps towards successfully changing your energy habits and preparing to implement any renewable.

Well, a modified version of the Kill-O-Watt meter, called the Tweet-O-Watt just won the #1 Audience Pick in the Greener Gadgets awards over at Treehugger. This modified meter actually wirelessly publishes the user’s daily energy consumption in kilowatt hours onto their Twitter account.

Created by Philip Torrone of Make Magazine and Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries, this is literally an open source hardware modification to the regular Kill-O-Watt meter – so anyone can make it at home. The guys who developed the gadget have put step by step instructions on how to recreate it out onto the web – hence the open source – in hopes of inspiring energy aces worldwide!

The idea here is that by publishing your daily kilowatt hours you become far more aware of how much electricity you are actually using – and you can watch the changes to your energy usage by changing your behaviors. You’ll be able to actually track the energy you save from taking care of ghost loads, changing out your lightbulbs or just being a better energy ace.

By tweeting your progress you can serve as a great example to the folks who follow you on Twitter and other social media sites – since you can actually have your twitter feed right into your Facebook (or other social media site) status updates. Your friends can watch your kilowatt hour usage evolve and you’ll be making them more aware just by showing them what you’re doing and informing them about how electricity is metered and used.

As energy efficiency becomes a hotter issue its education and information that becomes the most valuable commodity. People need to better understand how much power they’re using, how they’re using it and how much power they actually need in order to move forward in the process of going green.

Who knows, you could even inspire them to take steps towards reducing their own energy consumption!
So if you haven’t invested in your kilowatt meter, think seriously about getting one – and if you’re feeling really intrepid, consider using this hardware hack to inspire other to become as energy efficient as possible!

Scary right? I’ll admit the whole heating thing was super intimidating for me. I was happy in my ignorance but now that I’m armed and dangerous with BTU knowledge I can make much smarter decisions about how to move forward. So here are some valuable insights from someone going through the process of optimizing home heating.

1. What the heck is a BTU anyway?

A BTU is a British Thermal Unit and the term is widely used in North America to measure heat values. For our purposes, it just gives us a common value by which we can evaluate home heating options.

2. Remember that where you live absolutely effects decisions you make about energy.

But, don’t think that just because you live in parts of the US that don’t get sunshine all the time that you can’t take advantage of solar or solar thermal technologies!

3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The car guys learned that developing hybrid cars was a smart way to use existing, proven technologies and coupling them with great energy saving innovation. Your home heating system may end up doing the same thing – so keep an open mind!

Now that we have those main issues out of the way, let’s get to the nitty gritty.

Let’s assume you’ve replaced your windows and insulated your home and that you’re currently only using Type 2 heating oil and a traditional furnace to heat your home. Let’s further assume that your furnace is working properly and has been maintained so that its giving you optimal efficiency operation (about 85% efficiency is normal). Finally, let’s assume your hot water heater is separate from your oil system.
So having made those assumptions, let’s further assume that you need five refills of your 150 gallon oil tank per year.

5 Tanks * 150 Gallons = 750

This means, based on the above assumptions that you need about 750 gallons annually to heat your home.

Now, one gallon of oil will give you roughly 140,000 BTU.

150 Gallons * 140,000 BTU = 21,000,000 BTU

So, we can calculate that you need 21,000,000 BTU to heat your home.

So how can we offset some this oil BTU number and how many BTU can we get from other heating options?

For the sake of simplicity, let’s look at one of today’s most popular options and then at an option you might not have yet considered.

1. The Pellet Stove – These are super efficient wood burning stoves that burn small pellets rather than logs of wood. They can range from $1700-$3000+ and that cost does not include installation – although many consider that you can install them yourself if you’re handy. Pellets themselves cost between $200 and $300 per ton (roughly).

One Ton of Pellets = 13,000,000 BTU

So, if you only burned one ton of wood pellets, you could offset your oil consumption by more than 50%. There are a lot of folks who use a pellet stove as their primary heat source. Bear in mind they can be dusty, they require electric power and you’ll always have to buy pellets.

2. Solar Air Heater – This wall mounted or roof mounted solar thermal panel can heat up to 750 square feet during daylight hours and can still function well in overcast skies. Costing between $1500-$5000 they are a sustainable alternative heating resource that will pay for themselves eventually and will need minimal maintenance.

Solar Air Heater = 7,000,000 BTU

So, installing this renewable energy resource means you can offset 30% of your oil usage without the need to purchase any additional fuel.

So, at the end of the day, you need to make the decision that’s right for you, but I think having a solar air heater, a pellet stove and an oil furnace makes sense. Then you’re not totally dependent on any source for your home heating and you can be flexible and manage your fuel cost far more efficiently!

Did you know that you can have professionals come in and audit your energy efficiency - for free?

Did you know that you can also get recommendations about renewable energy and technology and even a quote for upgrades including incentives and rebates from the auditors?

Oh yes, it is totally possible!

For example, here in Massachusetts, you can head on over to MassSave.com and you can find out how to make your home more energy efficient, schedule an audit and apply for special loans to replace or upgrade your furnace or hot water heater. You can even get insulation, duct sealing and energy efficient windows paid for, or have the costs offset by these programs.

How does it work?

An energy auditor will come to your home with equipment and a laptop. Usually the auditor works for a non-profit organization. You’ll explain the basics of the house and then you’ll head down into the basement so he or she can see what’s what. They’ll assess the age and efficiency of your heat and hot water providers as well as the insulation and air movement within your home.

Once that data has been gathered, you’ll move upstairs where the auditor will assess your insulation (by removing an outlet wall plate and checking our your attic). They will also check out your windows and the exterior of your home so they can really get the lay of the land.

Once all of that data has been gathered, they sometimes provide you with free replacement compact flourescent light bulbs and then they’ll provide their recommendations - including the costs and offset costs by various providers.

Not only will you be able to make your home more efficient with less money up front, but you’ll also learn a lot about your home, get great home maintenance and care tips, and get useful recommendations on systems that could work for you in the future.

So find out if there is a program out there in your state for an energy audit - and schedule one today! Get started at DSIRE.org today!