Energy Labeling essentially figures out a building, or home's, "miles per gallon". By taking into consideration insulation, heating, cooling, size, appliances, etc, a few new companies can figure out the energy efficiency of buildings. The one mentioned in the article linked to the title, Earth Advantage Institute, calls it's energy labeling of homes an "Energy Performance Score" (EPS). Many real estate agents like this because it can be used as another selling point for homes. If you're stuck choosing between two cars, the one with the better gas mileage will probably win; so, this same principle is applied to home buying.
A few Aragon EIC (Environmental Impact Committee) meetings ago, I recall discussing a company that would potentially come to Aragon and set up equipment that would basically perform the same aforementioned task by figuring out where Aragon is spending the most energy and what amount of that energy is actually needed. Then, after figuring out where we have wasted energy, it would tell us where and how to stop the unneeded energy consumption. This would not only help the earth, but it would help the school save some much needed money. However, these rewards might be a bit delayed, seeing as this Energy Labeling costs a bit of money.
Do you see this process of Energy Labeling becoming common practice in the future and why? Or, do you see it as merely a trend that will eventually pass? What do you think of Aragon getting Energy Labeled and do you think it might actually happen in the near future?
1 comment:
Although getting a smart meter (the technology that performs energy labeling) originally seemed like a neat idea to help save energy and increase efficiency, smart meters are terribly expensive, incurring both upfront and monthly costs. A much cheaper way to record where and how energy is being spent is to look at our energy bills, and compare the before and after values (before and after buying energy saving technology). Smart meters are great for identifying the problem, but I believe the money could be better spent on purchasing the technology to actually solve the problem.
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