The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offer simple web-based tools that provide energy efficiency assessments for consumers wishing to manage their energy consumption.
These resources offer a set of interactive tools to help assess your home's annual energy use and provide recommendations to increase efficiency.
Home Energy Yardstick: EPA's Home Energy Yardstick provides a simple assessment of your home's annual energy use compared to similar homes. By answering a few basic questions about your home, you can get:
Your home's Home Energy Yardstick score (on a scale of 0 to 10);
Insights into how much of your home's energy use is related to heating and cooling versus other everyday uses like appliances, lighting, and hot water;
Links to guidance from ENERGY STAR on how to increase your home's score, improve comfort, and lower utility bills; and
An estimate of your home's annual carbon emissions.
The Home Energy Saver Tool recommends energy-saving upgrades that are appropriate to your home and makes sense for your home's climate and local energy prices. The money invested in these upgrades commonly earns "interest" in the form of energy bill savings, at an annual rate of 20% or more. HES also estimates the home's carbon footprint and shows how much it can be reduced.