Jackie, Mindful Energy Consumption

Jackie decided to improve the energy efficiency of her home in 2006. Her home in Knoxville is 1700 square feet, and all appliances are electric. When an old heating system that was “about as efficient as a blow dryer” needed to be replaced, she decided to upgrade. She took advantage of TVA’s Energy Right program and replaced the old system with a modern, SEER 14 heat pump.

In addition to the new heating and cooling system, Jackie purchased a “Kill a Watt” plug meter to help her identify appliances with phantom loads (those that use energy even in the off position). By simply plugging her appliances in to the meter, and the meter into the outlet, she was able to identify items that were drawing standby power when they were otherwise off. To remedy the power drain, she purchased power strips for these appliances and eliminated the phantom load by turning both the appliance and the power strip off when not in use.

Next, Jackie replaced all light bulbs with compact fluorescents, and eliminated baseboard draft by adding quarter-round to the bottom of the baseboard.

These changes, together with hanging clothes outside to dry instead of using the clothes dryer, have dramatically improved energy consumption and produced correspondingly lower utility bills.

Monthly Electric Use in Kilowatt Hours

David 's Journey to a Net ZEH

Is it possible to create a Net Zero Energy Home by renovating an existing home?  Yes!

Follow David's journey through this process...

Mindful Consumption