TITLE:
Transforming Energy Usage: It’s Not Only about Solar
AUTHORS:
Melissa Matlock
KEYWORDS:
Energy Efficiency, Residential, Solar, Survey, Energy Conservation, Water Savings, Low-Income
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Energy Efficiency,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: GRID Alternatives,
a non-profit solar contractor, installs solar electric systems for low-income
families. Part of GRID Alternatives’ program is to provide solar electric
systems that are designed to replace 75% of the homeowners’ electricity usage
with solar power. This leaves 25% of their bill still to be paid. In order to
save our resources, one must first use conservation practices, then energy
efficiency, and then follow-up with renewable energy to cover the rest. GRID
Alternatives Inland Empire (GRID IE) educates our participating homeowners and
community members on this philosophy. However, measuring whether or not our
families have been following this philosophy is hard to prove. It may seem
obvious that if we want to know whether our homeowners are saving energy, we
should look at their energy usage before and after solar. However, this is not
the case with our low-income families that could be using electricity to make
their lives more comfortable. GRID IE developed a survey to be given before
homeowners received their solar systems and started their participation with
GRID Alternatives and the same survey to be given after they have received
their solar systems. This before and after survey (pre-test/post-test) asked
our homeowners to rate their responses to 7 questions on a scale of 1 - 10. The
before and after responses for each person were compared, and as a group, their
differences were calculated to find out if the differences were statistically
significance (within subjects, dependent Z test). 6 out of 7 questions showed
statistical significance. The big picture is that change is happening among our
low-income homeowners and has happened for many of the varied energy saving
methods discussed. It is important to transform energy usage, because the
solution is not just solved with solar.