We’ve made it through two quarters of the Save Energy Now program, and the homeowners are well ahead on overall savings.

Save Energy Now participants have reduced their annual natural gas usage by over 12 percent, as of the end of June 2010. The blue curve on this graph represents the annual heating demand – which shows that the mild 2010 winter accounted for much of the savings through March, but that participants continued to drive down usage as the year progressed. Of note, most participants joined the program in late February. Well done!

Save Energy Now program participants have reduced their annual electricity usage by about 3 percent. This is a sizable reduction of consumption, but is not on track to achieve the goal of a 10 percent reduction by the end of 2010. From a carbon emissions standpoint, it is better to continue to focus on natural gas reductions, but we should continue to find ways to reduce electricity consumption as well.

Everyone’s favorite metric is cost, and SEN participants are well, well ahead in this category. Overall, program participants have reduced their annual utility bills by a combined $2,525 for the 10 homes in the study. Yes, that’s an average of over $250 saved, per house, just through June of this year! We have one house in the program that has racked up nearly $500 in saving, and is going to shoot for an overall savings by the end of the year, of $1000.

Now that we know that this approach to conservation works, it’s time to start rolling out a bigger program, Sustainable Works. I invite you all to visit the Sustainable Works website to read up on the Edmonds/Lynnwood project, and, if you like, you can sign up for the program right there on the website.