Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald staff writer
“Am I wasting more electricity than my neighbors?”
That’s the question Hawaii Energy, the state conservation and efficiency program administered by the Public Utilities Commission, hopes Big Island residents will be asking themselves over the next year.
The impetus for that question will be a personalized mailing — dubbed “Home Energy Reports” — that the group began sending on Jan. 23 to 31,000 homes on Hawaii Island, as well as 31,000 combined on Lanai, Maui and Molokai. A total of four reports will be sent to the same randomly selected households over the course of a year, said Hawaii Energy Residential Program Leader Larry Newman.
“It’s a highly scientific approach based on experimental design,” he said.
The mailings to the Neighbor Islands — costing a total of $400,000 — constitute an expansion of a pilot program that began on Oahu in May, Newman said. Electricity consumers were informed about how their energy usage measured up to that of their neighbors who live in similarly sized homes with similar usage requirements. In much the same way that neighbors may get competitive about whose grass is greener, Hawaii Energy administrators aimed to essentially stir up a new way for electricity consumers to keep up with the Joneses, he explained.
“Evidence shows that one of the key ways to reduce energy use is to provide homes with information about their usage and offer suggestions on what they can do to save,” he said.
Between May and January 2012, program administrators have estimated resultant energy savings among the Oahu pilot program participants of almost 1.2 million kilowatt hours, totaling about $400,000 Newman said.
“In general, each person may see a reduction in usage in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 2 percent,” he said. “But when you spread that across 15,000 people, 2 percent of that group is significant.”
The mailings show consumers a simple graph that charts their kilowatt hour energy consumption for the past month, and compares it to the average usage of 99 anonymous nearby homes of a similar size and construction type. Households are ranked from 1 to 100, with 1 using the least amount of energy and 100 using the most. The reports also show a graph representing the average kilowatt hour usage of the most efficient 20 percent of their neighbors.
The reports also contain tips on how households can save energy and money, said Ray Starling, Hawaii Energy program manager.
“Customers that receive Home Energy Reports will be empowered to take actions that help them save energy and money,” he said.
Hawaii Energy has estimated that the expansion of the program to the Neighbor Islands could save more than 3.3 million kilowatt hours, or the equivalent of more than $1.3 million in electricity costs, through January 2013.
For more information on the program, visit www.HawaiiEnergy.com.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.