Two Core Principals of Residential Energy Consumption

"A home's purpose is to provide comfort and protection from the external environment." That may be true but it is a limiting statement. A home is where you watch TV with your family, play video games with your sibling(s), read bedtime stories to your kid(s), or cook with your spouse. A simple truth is that energy is required for all these activities and more. Determining how to minimize the amount of energy needed to achieve these activities is not so simple. However there are two key principals to start with, that will help you better understand your home:

1) Energy consumption is the result of factors like occupant behavior, building orientation and materials, and weather interacting at a given time. 

2) Once a home is built, occupant behavior is the most important factor and often the cheapest to improve.

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