On Monday, we received a mailer from our natural gas provider, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and instead of ripping it up and recycling it as I usually would have, I opened it and found a personalized statement of how much energy we saved in January and February.
PG&E automatically enrolls its residential customers in its 10/20 program – that is for every 1% in energy you save vs. an average of the bills from the last three winters, you’ll receive a 1% credit. If you save 10% or more you’ll receive a 20% credit.
Drumroll please…
We used 34% less natural gas than our three year average! This calculated to a $26.04 credit on our March bill.
In the same mailbox we received a property tax notice that notified us that our tax burden is going down.
Good news? Bad news?
For the short time, good news. We have to pay less this year. The bad news? Our house is still worth less than we bought it for.
Guess that means we have plenty of time to keep at it, happy with what we have, continue to reduce our impact, and try to grow enough food to be self-sufficient!
May 23, 2008
Our Natural Gas Use is Down!
