In Perspective: Gulf Oil Spill vs. Home Energy Retrofits
Did we even need to drill the Deepwater Horizon oil well to begin with? Actually, no. There are over 100 million homes in the U.S. Most of them use energy inefficiently because they’re not well insulated, sealed and set up. The energy contained in the biggest oil spill in U.S. history is equal to the energy that just 75,000 homes waste in a single year.
Seventy-five thousand homes represent less than 0.1 percent of all single-family homes in the U.S. or the number of homes in a single mid-sized U.S. city, like Providence, R.I., or Chattanooga, Tenn. Doing energy retrofits to make those homes efficient would save the equivalent of the entire Gulf Oil Spill every year on a permanent basis.
Comparing the Costs
No one really knows how much it’ll end up costing to clean up the disaster created by the Gulf Oil Spill. And when a final number is calculated, years from now, there’s no way that it’ll take into account the true extent of the environmental damage that the oil spill has created. But even in the preliminary estimates made before the oil has finished flowing, the cost is expected to exceed $40 billion.
How does that compare to doing 75,000 home energy retrofits? Less than $1 billion. And those retrofits – using low-tech and low-cost techniques like better insulation, air sealing, replacing furnaces with more efficient versions – are permanent. And those 75,000 retrofits save energy year after year. Every year that goes by, those 75,000 homes will save the equivalent energy of the entire Gulf Oil Spill.
How’d we figure this out?
The Gulf Oil Spill has leaked somewhere between 25 million and 50 million gallons of oil into the ocean so far – depending on which estimates you believe. In addition, a nearly equivalent amount of natural gas has escaped: we’re not counting that energy in our calculations. The oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico alone represents approximately 4 million MMBtu’s (million British Thermal Units) of energy.
For comparison’s sake, the average U.S. home consumes about 170 MMBtu’s in a year when you factor in the costs of generating all forms of energy used. This varies widely from region to region, but it’s a good rule of thumb. An efficient home, however, uses only 120 MMBtu’s on average each year. So doing an energy retrofit to a home saves an average of 50 MMBtu’s per year per home.
The calculations all have a pretty large margin of error – since no one really knows how fast the oil is leaking, how much is already in the water, or how much more will spill before the leak is plugged.
Is your house wasting energy?
You can find out pretty easily. There’s a quick online energy efficiency estimate tool at EnergySavvy.com that you can use to find out where your home stands. If you’re looking to do a home energy retrofit to become more efficient, make sure you take advantage of all the utility energy rebates and government tax credits designed to help pay for it.
Quick Facts
· 75,000 houses = Mid-sized U.S. city or large suburb of a major city, like Chattanooga, Tenn. or Providence, R.I.
· There are 110 million single-family homes in the U.S.
· The oil spill, since it began in April 2010, has leaked between 25 million– 50 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. We’re using a conservative estimate of around 30 million gallons for our calculations.
· A typical house wastes 30 percent more energy than an efficient one does. On average, that means that 51 MMBtu’s are being wasted by a typical home every year.
· A typical home energy retrofit costs around $10,000 per house – before any utility or governments energy rebates are applied.
· A home energy retrofit doesn’t just save energy for a single year – it prevents waste year after year. Homeowners often think about the savings over 10 – 15 years.
Scott Case
VP of EnergySavvy
www.EnergySavvy.com
