Project Energy

by Terri Gruca
(WCCO) Electricity is one of the greatest inventions of all time. It gives us the power to heat and cool our homes, cook our meals and watch our favorite shows.

It's become such a way of life, most of us don't bother to think about how electricity gets to us. That may be just part of the problem. Our appetite for the latest electrical gadget is pushing more pollution into our air.

But we have the power to change, and it's not as difficult as we might think.

Before electricity ends up in your home, it starts as natural gas or in cleaner forms, such as wind and water. But most of the time, electricity begins as coal.

Burning coal not only generates electricity, but it also generates a heat-trapping gas that leads to global warming.

Three St. Louis Park, Minn. families agreed to see if making small changes around their homes could really help them save.

Todd and Amy Dvorak, Chad and Jessi Amon and Tim and Ann Schneider all agreed to let us monitor their bills for four months as they made small changes to their homes.

"People are just waiting to see it to believe it, I think," Ann Schneider said.

Infrared Camera Highlights The Problem

Before we started, we wanted to show the families how the energy they use often leaks out of their homes.

Pat Greiner from Thermal Vision Energy Solutions agreed to video the homes with his infrared camera. The camera highlights how much heat escapes some of the homes.

The portions that appear in red signal all of the places where energy is lost, electricity is wasted and heat-trapping gases are released.

The infrared camera Greiner uses has benefits even he is only now realizing. He hopes to one day be able to use it to help people looking to buy homes, because the technique can also pinpoint other problems, such as water damage.

The Fixes

Jimmie Sparks is an energy auditor with the St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium. He spent about an hour at each home searching for energy-saving strategies.

• Attic Hatch

"One of the first things I notice -- and I would say I notice this in about 90 percent of the houses -- there's no weather-stripping on your attic hatch," Sparks told the Amon family.

Chad Amon added weather-stripping to his attic door in minutes.

• Refrigerator

"In the short-term with a refrigerator, you need to clean the coils once a year," Sparks told the Amon family. Dust covered the coils on the bottom of their refrigerator.

Vacuuming the bottom grate can help your refrigerator operate more efficiently.

• Outlets

"We could do some air sealing around (the outlet)," Sparks pointed out. "Foam gaskets could go here."

Gaskets are foam squares you can add behind outlet plates to keep air from escaping. They cost a few dollars for about eight of them, and are another quick and easy fix.

• Light Bulbs

Lighting accounts for 25 percent of the energy usage in most homes. Changing to energy-efficient light bulbs can cost you more up front, but they all last longer -- some 10 times longer.

Dick Kelly, CEO of Xcel Energy, says there's something else consumers may not know.

"I think most people think they have to replace their windows or do some major projects, and that's not true," Kelly said. "Even if you do things like change your light bulbs, that will have a huge impact."

Here's why: To burn a regular, old-fashioned 100-watt incandescent light bulb eight hours a day over a year, Xcel Energy would need to burn 330 pounds of coal to power that bulb. But if you replaced it with an energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulb, Xcel would only need to burn 76 pounds of coal. That's one-fourth the amount of coal for the same amount of light.

Each of our families changed the light bulbs in the lights they used most.

• Insulation And Thermostat

Tim Schneider also made a few other adjustments. He added more insulation in his laundry room and even a programmable thermostat.

"I was kind of worried that I wasn't going to be able to do it," said Tim Schneider. "But once I took a look at it, it wasn't that tough. These are the four wires that I need."

"For every one degree you set back your thermostat eight hours, it's a 1 percent savings," Sparks said.

Sparks said people often think turning down the thermostat when they are gone requires their furnace or air conditioner to work harder once they get home, and that is not true.

What Is A Kilowatt Hour?

Our electric bills are configured in kilowatt hours (kWh). One kilowatt hour is equal to burning 10 100-watt light bulbs for an hour. The average Minnesota family uses 700 kWh of power a month or the equivalent of about 7,000 light bulbs a month.

The Savings

"I think these homeowners learned a little bit of how their house operates, how they use energy and they took advantage of that information," Sparks said.

After four months, every one of our families saw a drop in their energy usage. These families only made some of the improvements suggested by their home energy audits.

The big thing to remember: Electric use here in Minnesota is highest during the summer months because of air conditioning. So the fact that these families saved money before the summer is a big deal, and the changes they made could potentially have a greater impact on their electric bills in the coming months.

• The Amons

The Amons saw their biggest electric savings, $13 in one month, after they bought a new refrigerator. In the last two months, they saved 204 kWh. Their best month, they were able to cut their electric use by 30 percent.

On the natural gas side, CenterPoint Energy found they saved 184 therms in four months. That's a total gas savings of approximately $204.14. CenterPoint Energy said that's significant.

• The Dvoraks

The Dvoraks saved about 60 cents a month on their electric bill. Xcel Energy said they saved 31 kWh in total. Their best month, they cut electric use by 19 percent. Their total electric savings over four months was $2.25.

On the natural gas side, they saved 20 therms in four months for a total savings of about $23.14.

Total electric and gas savings combined: $25.39.

• The Schneiders

The Schneiders cut their electricity use by 143 kWh. They saved as much as 17 percent in one month. Over the four months, they saved $10.37 on electricity.

On the natural gas side, they saved 42 therms in four months for a total gas savings of approximately $44.44.

Their total electric and gas savings combined: $54.81.

Impact All Minnesotans Can Make

So is all the work worth it?

"Whether you feel it's a moral obligation or not, I think there is some duty or responsibility each of us have, including the utility company, to try and make this a better place by having cleaner air," Xcel CEO Kelly said.

If everyone cut $5 from his or her energy bill, it would keep Minnesota from burning 170,000 tons of coal. That's enough coal to fill more than 1,500 train cars; enough coal to shut down a power plant that runs seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for one full month. That's the true power of change.

If you'd like to know more about Thermal Vision Energy Solutions and its infrared camera applications, call 612-804-9234.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)