Natural Gas, Propane and Oil Usage inmy Home

The four most common fuel types used for generating electricity are natural gas, oil, propane, and wood. And though the first three options may be processed in power plants to generate electricity, much of their output tends to dissipate before they can reach their targeted destinations, like our homes and offices. Wood, on the other hand, is different. This is because it can be burned in your home directly; its energy potential can be tapped immediately for the generation of heat and warmth. Wood also has the potential to be a renewable energy source if it is used wisely.

It may not be necessary to determine exactly how much fuel your home consumes at any particular period, but it is important to understand what each type of fuel is being used for in your home. These commonly used fuel types are largely combustion fuels; their main functions as energy sources are to provide fire for cooking, and for heating air and water. These are the expected comforts of the modern home. Therefore, if these fuels are being used for boilers, woodstoves, furnaces and hot water heaters, it would be good to determine their basic operating efficiency, since some applications may consume more of these fuels than others.

Once you have identified where you are using these fuels (that is, which applications are using these fuels), you can then assess your bills; whether monthly, seasonally or annually. Then you will be able to grasp the amount of fossil energy that you are consuming and which type of fossil fuel takes the largest piece of the pie, with the largest consumption total.

Because all fuel types are different, with their own functionalities, you will find that each has its own particular benefits and disadvantages. For example, solar energy can be dispersed instead of being stored physically, although it does accumulate over time. However, if the solar energy system is installed properly, its harvesting devices can easily replace the fossil fuel devices in your home.

Energy consumption may require some specific quantitative measurement so that the various fuel types can be evaluated. As with any task, scientific or otherwise, the key steps to a plausible solution are identification and quantification. Even if you must initially make conjectures of the total annual fuel costs your home will generate, you may now proceed with further computations. For these functions, you can determine their quantum roughly by the number of household members who would be using solar hot water, while for solar heating, the size of the home, insolation and number of days for needing heat will suffice.

With the proper understanding of how much energy your home is using, and what types of fuels are being used to provide the energy, you are now set to consider which solar energy systems are the appropriate ones for your home.


You can include solar energy figures in this comparison exercise to get a good idea of how solar energy fares amongst the fossil fuels.