Most Americans have a fairly good idea of their financial situation. But what about their energy situation?
With money, this is pretty simple: You know how much money you make. You know, generally, about how much money you spend — and what you spend it on.
Like money, energy also flows in and out of your life. You’re almost certainly using energy of some kind — electricity, natural gas, a stack of split logs on the woodpile — to provide heating and cooling, lighting, and power for all your gadgets.
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You use that energy every day, but it’s a lot harder to track than money. Your bank statement tells you that you spent $38 on sushi takeout on Nov. 13, but your power bill isn’t as specific. Sure, you can see how many kilowatt-hours of electricity you consumed, but you don’t know how much was the big-screen TV and how much was the coffee maker.
That’s starting to change, and in 2024, we’re all a little more cognizant of the consequences of our energy use. The growing climate emergency has many people thinking not just about their direct use of fossil fuels — your gasoline car or your natural gas furnace — but about the sources of their electricity. Is that new EV powered by electrons that came from a coal-fired power plant or from a renewable source like solar panels?
On a more personal level, you may be paying more attention to how you use energy because it’s probably not cheap. Electricity prices were about 25% higher in 2022 than they were in 2013, and they’re expected to stay fairly steady in 2024. That’s a big dent in your budget. But unlike your sushi takeout, you have less direct insight into where that cost is coming from and how you can manage it.
Emerging technologies — some already on the market, some coming in 2024 and beyond — offer a better look at your home’s energy use, as well as more control over it. Consider an example from Randy Johnson, senior manager of inside sales for SPAN, a company that makes smart electrical panels. Part of his pitch to CNET at RE+, a renewable energy industry conference in September, was that he learned from his smart panel that his aging refrigerator was using more electricity than the heat pump that heated and cooled his house.
“One thing that people are constantly appalled by is how much they’re paying for electricity,” Johnson said. “So [a smart electrical panel] gives you the insight and understanding as to what your energy behavior is.”
The value of that detailed view of your energy use has been reinforced not just by energy experts, but during our regular reporting on home energy and utilities issues. And we’ve seen firsthand the technology that can bring it to you.
Whether you want to control where your power comes from, know how much you’re using or figure out exactly where it’s going, you might soon have tools at your fingertips that make your energy budget as clear as your financial one.
Tesla put its new Powerwall 3 battery on the show flor at the RE+ renewable energy trade show in Las Vegas in September 2023.
Home batteries: Say goodbye to blackouts
Power outages are a fact of life. And depending on where you live, they can be a fairly common fact of life. The average American electricity customer went through seven hours of outages in 2021, with the average outage lasting about two hours. Severe weather meant longer outages for those in some states, including Texas and Louisiana.
Solar panels alone won’t save you in a power outage. You’d need a fuel-powered generator or a home battery (or an electric vehicle capable of bidirectional charging). Companies seem to be rolling out new and improved models of these devices every day, and the latest incarnation of one of the most popular home batteries, the Tesla Powerwall 3, is poised for wider release in 2024. Having the right equipment can help you avoid the worst parts of severe weather or grid problems, and having the right technology around it means your battery can last long enough to get you through the outage.
Consider that the typical American home uses about 30kWh of energy per day. A Tesla Powerwall, which will cost you around $10,000, holds 13.5kWh — less than 12 hours. But you don’t have to run everything when the power is out. Maybe you need only the refrigerator or the air conditioner. That can keep what you need going much longer, stretching your battery life and reducing the odds that you have to, say, throw away everything in your refrigerator.
While some home batteries can triage what uses power in a blackout, there’s another tool you may want to consider.
