School of Life Hacks
    Sign inTake a seat
    A kitchen table at evening covered with a fanned stack of blank statements, a highlighter, a calculator and a phone, with a hand mid-note.

    The Energy and Water Audit

    The quantity half of every usage-billed charge, done with a $30 meter, a flashlight and one Saturday.

    Module 6 of 84 lessonsWritten in full1 worksheet
    Start this moduleThe whole course

    The lessons

    All 4, in the order they are read.

    1. 1. Find the biggest load first
      A handful of appliances account for most of a household's power, and measuring beats guessing every single time.
    2. 2. The running toilet and the leak
      A large water bill is almost never behaviour; it is a leak, and the meter tells you within twenty minutes whether you have one.
    3. 3. Envelope before equipment
      Air sealing and insulation return more per dollar than replacing a working furnace, and almost nobody does them in that order.
    4. 4. The rebate that pays for it
      Utilities and states publish rebate schedules that routinely cover a third to all of the work, and they are claimed before the job, not after.

    The worksheet

    Load and leak audit

    Top half: every plug load you measured, ranked by annual cost. Bottom half: the water tests, with a result and a date. A blank result line is a test you did not run, and the most expensive line in any water bill is the test nobody ran.

    Load and leak audit
    ItemMeasured drawHours per daykWh per yearCost per year at your rateAction
    EXAMPLE — second refrigerator in garage120 W running, 45% duty24473$66Unplug it, or accept the cost knowingly
    ———= W x hours x 365 / 1000= kWh x your rate—
    WATER TEST — meter still with everything offPass / fail———Fail means a leak somewhere on your side
    WATER TEST — dye in each toilet tank, 20 minutesPass / fail per toilet———Colour in the bowl means a leaking flapper
    WATER TEST — irrigation zone by zonePass / fail per zone————