Green Allowance

“Basic Users” get a new Scorecard on the first day of every month that shows the “money saved.” If you agreed that you get half, then half of the “money saved” for that month is your Green Allowance! Scorecards for Real Data Users are created when Green Allowance receives a new meter reading from your utility. You share the “money saved” on the Scorecard for the most recent billing period. Congratulations!

No, they’re not exact. These are estimates, and we cannot guarantee that you will save energy. There are many factors that affect how much you’ll save, but we can make reasonable estimates based on government data, averages and some basic assumptions.

These are reminders of how you can save energy just by developing certain habits. You can get on-screen rewards (icons in the upper left of your screen) depending on your answer, and these reminders and your answers will show up on your next Scorecard. If you are a Real Data User, these habits can save you a LOT of energy and money, so YES, you can easily add to your Green Allowance by doing these things. However, we don’t give you an estimate of how much you’ll save because they’re nearly impossible to estimate. If you’re a Basic User, doing these things doesn’t add to your estimated savings on your Scorecard.

If your utility is partnered with Green Allowance and you’ve given us the account information, we have the ability to generate “Scorecards” based on exactly how much electrical energy you’ve used. As a Real Data User, you’ll learn the actual effect of your energy saving actions when the Scorecard arrives at the end of every billing cycle. You’ll also be a contender for the “Leaderboard” and School Teams with scores tracked by the website, and you may have information available on the website about your utility’s special offers. So if your utility is partnered with us, enter your account information on the “My Membership” page and you’ll enjoy this wonderful benefit. If not, help us help you: contact your utility and tell them you want them to partner with Green Allowance!

Yes, absolutely. Your utility treats your energy consumption data and personal information with great care. In fact, even though Green Allowance may partner with your utility, we will never receive personally identifiable information from your utility. Instead, we receive updates on consumption / meter readings associated with account numbers – not names and addresses. Still, both Green Allowance and your utility consider this information sensitive and we take security measures to ensure that it is safe and secure.

As a Basic User, you purchase your electricity from a utility that hasn’t partnered with Green Allowance yet or, if it has, you have not provided your utility account information to Green Allowance. You can still use the Green Allowance website, but your savings are rough estimates rather than an accurate Scorecard based on real data, and you won’t see any gain from efforts to change your habits, like turning off the lights when you leave the room.

Just open another account with another screen name.

When you register, we ask for the name of the utility that provides your electric service. If they’re partnered with us, we’ll let tell you right then! You can also check the “Our Supporters” page.

Yes, you can join as a Basic User. Your parents won’t be saving money, but you’ll still be helping to save the planet.

At first, we’ll base your savings on estimates just like a Basic User. Enter your utility account information (from the My Membership page); when we get a year’s worth of data, you’ll be a Real Data User and you’ll get Scorecards based on actual data.

Savings in Green Allowance are based on a simple idea: if nothing changes, you will use the same amount of energy in any given month as you did during the same month last year. We use this idea for both Basic Users and Real Data Users by assuming that any lasting energy saving action (like changing an incandescent light bulb to a CFL) will save energy compared to the same time last year for a whole year. We look at a whole year because energy usage has an annual pattern – since most people use more energy for cooling in the summer and some use more energy for heating in the winter.

The method for calculating energy savings for Basic Users differs from the method for Real Data Users. How those methods differ is described below.

The energy savings estimates for each energy-saving action is based on U.S. government data of average usage for household lighting, cooling, appliances, etc., as well as some assumptions about usage within those categories. Actual savings vary significantly, as they depend on many factors. For example, suppose you change a light bulb to a CFL. If you use that lamp three hours a day, that CFL will save three times as much as the same CFL used only one hour a day. So, we make some well-educated guesses about how much you’ll save.

Scorecards for Real Data Users reflect more accurate savings.

As a Real Data User, Green Allowance uses your actual meter readings obtained through secure methods from your utility to create your Scorecard. We compare your average daily usage of the most recent billing cycle with the average daily usage of the same billing cycle last year. Then we multiply the difference by the number of days in the most recent billing cycle. That’s the amount of energy saved we share with you on your scorecard.

Green Allowance multiplies the amount of energy saved (in kW-h) during the last cycle by the price of energy (cents per kW-h). If you’re a Basic User, we multiply it by the most recently available average rate for your state as provided by a U.S. government agency. If you’re a Real Data User, we use the rate provided by your utility. Electricity rates usually have two components: supply and delivery. Supply is the cost of the energy itself, and delivery is the cost of bringing the energy to you. Since you (or your parent) pay them both, we include them both.

That’s the total number of dollars and trees we estimate you’ll ever save for all the actions you’ve completed so far in Green Allowance. For example, if you click “I did it!” for having changed an incandescent bulb to a CFL, that’s worth $4.60 in savings over the next year. We add $4.60 to your “total savings” as soon as you click “I did it!” For Basic Users, we’ll add a month’s worth of that savings ($0.38) to your “money saved” every month for a year. “Total Savings” for Real Data Users is a combination of the actual savings thus far and an estimate of how much you’ll save in the future for the actions you’ve finished.

If your “energy saved” is less than zero for the last billing cycle, that means you used MORE energy than you did the same time last year. This could have happened for a few reasons. Maybe you were on vacation that time last year and less energy was used then, or perhaps you used more energy recently because something unusual was happening -- like a construction project with extra lighting and power tools. Maybe you used more air conditioning this time because it was warmer out. It’s also possible your utility wasn’t able to access your meter to read it this time and they over-estimated your usage. If so, they’ll get it right the next time they can read your meter.

Try to not be discouraged! Your efforts to save energy mean that you used less than you would have otherwise, and that’s good for the planet. Stick with it, and you’ll probably get a Green Allowance next time.

“Trees saved” is based on this idea: some of the ways we make electricity today involve burning fossil fuels such as coal. That adds carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to the Earth’s atmosphere. So if you use less electricity, you and your family have prevented some carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere. A growing tree takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. One grown tree contains the same amount of carbon emitted by making 125 kW-h of electricity. So are you really saving trees? Well, not really, but the Earth’s atmosphere thinks you are!

Here’s another way to think about this. Trees contain carbon. Through a process called “photosynthesis”, they get that carbon from the carbon dioxide in the air. When a tree dies, the wood rots or burns, and that tree’s carbon ends up back in the air as carbon dioxide. Using 125 kW-h of energy adds the same amount of carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere as burning one tree.

How big a tree are we talking about here? A tree with a 48-centimeter circumference (or about 6 inches in diameter) contains about 43 kilograms of carbon, which will make about 157 kilograms of carbon dioxide. In the U.S., we create about 1.26 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. Do the arithmetic (157 / 1.26) and you’ll get 125 kW-h per tree.

Only Real Data Users can be on the Leaderboards because their energy usage is verified by their utility. The higher your monthly average savings, the higher you appear on the Leaderboard. Only the top ten performers are shown and, if you’re not in the top ten and you’re a Real Data User, you’ll show up just below the tenth position and your position number is shown.

The School Leaderboard is like the individual Leaderboard, except that the school position in the Leaderboard is based on the average monthly energy savings per team member. Only Real Data Users can join school teams on line, but if you’re a Basic User you and your schoolmates can add up your individual scores to keep track of your team.

Users are sorted by their “average energy saved.” This is the average amount of energy you save monthly. Save more energy every month and your average will go up!

To appear on the Leaderboard, your electric utility must be partnered with Green Allowance and you must be a Real Data User. However, as a “Basic” user, you can still complete tasks and we’ll track estimated savings for you.

There are gadgets you can buy like the Kill A Watt™. Plug any appliance into it, then into an outlet, and it will display the electricity consumption of that appliance in kilowatt-hours, the same units your utility uses to measure electricity.

Your utility probably has programs that will help you save energy, and many of them will even give you discounts, rebates or even free services designed to help you save energy (like a home audit). Also, the U.S. government has some excellent websites that provide lots of detailed information that can help you save energy. Try these two: www.energystar.gov and www.energysavers.gov.

When you buy electricity, the utility charges you by the kilowatt-hour (kW-h). A kW-h is the amount of energy it takes to run a 1,000-Watt appliance for an hour. After you’ve run a 1,000-watt appliance for 1 hour (or a 100-watt appliance for 10 hours), you’ve used a kilowatt-hour.

You buy “energy” from your electrical utility measured in “kilowatt-hours.” To get a job done, like using an electric appliance for a certain amount of time, you’ll need a certain amount of energy. Power is an “energy rate”, and one measure of power is “kilowatts.” One kilowatt-hour of energy is used if you use a kilowatt of power for an hour.

There’s a wide range of choices when buying CFLs, so it’s good to know how to shop for them. There are also a variety of light colors they give off, so you need to decide what color is best for the space.

First, know that only CFLs marked “dimmable” or “three-way” will work properly in those situations.

Figure out how much light you need. CFLs require less power than incandescent bulbs for the same amount of light. So a 60-watt incandescent bulb that gets the job done now will only require a 13 to 15 watt CFL. Most CFL packages will indicate equivalents to the incandescent bulb you are replacing.

Next, make sure you buy CFLs with the Energy Star logo on the package. If you do, a quality of the light (the “color rendering index”) must reach a certain level, and that can make a big difference in whether the light looks good.

Then, find the right color light. Color is actually measured on the “Kelvin” temperature scale. Temperatures of 2,700 to 3,000 K are warm / soft - like a standard incandescent bulb; 3,500 to 4,100 are cool white / bright – good for kitchens and work spaces; and 5,000 to 6,500 is closer to natural daylight and is bluer. Many people like to use this last kind for reading.

To learn more, go to www.energystar.gov and click on “lighting” under “products”.

Some Energy Star qualified CFLs are made to work on dimmers - be sure to check the fine print on the packaging. Remember, though, that dimmers can cause CFLs to burn out more quickly and at present, CFLs are not able to dim to 0%, only 10 or 20%, of initial light output.

Mercury, which is poisonous to our environment, comes up in two different ways when it comes to lighting. First, in making the electricity to power our lights (and everything else), some mercury comes out of the smokestacks of some power plants. That goes right into our air, and the amount emitted is monitored carefully by the power plant operator. Also, CFLs contain a small amount of mercury (about 4 milligrams per bulb). Actually, on average in the U.S., the amount of mercury is a CFL is less than the amount that would come from a power plant to make the extra energy to light an incandescent!

Even so, mercury is concentrated in a CFL, so you shouldn’t just throw them in the trash when they burn out. Lots of stores (like Home Depot) will take your burned out CFLs and take care of them properly. Also, try www.earth911.com or www.recycleabulb.com to find the recycling center nearest you.

This can occur with “occasional” actions, ones that only last for a certain number of weeks or months. The action for that tree needs to be done again, and if you do it you’ll receive your Green Allowance for this again.

A regular power strip usually has one switch for many plugs, so if nothing’s being used, you can shut off power completely to everything. That’s good, because a lot of electronics use a little energy even when they’re not on.

A “smart” power strip can “sense” whether something (like a TV, DVD player, game console or computer monitor) is being used or not, and when it’s NOT being used, the smart power strip shuts off power completely to it. So using a “smart” power strip ensures that you’ll never waste energy when you’re not using your electronics, and that means big savings!

“Energy Star” is a rating system developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to help consumers use more energy-efficient products. Energy Star qualified appliances meet strict energy guidelines. An Energy Star qualified product uses less energy than one that isn’t qualified, so you’ll pay less for energy the whole time you use it.

In the long run, yes. Energy Star appliances can pay for themselves in 3-8 years. For calculators that tell you how much your family can save, go to www.energystar.gov and click on “Products.” When you click on the appliance you’re thinking about upgrading, you’ll see a link to a “calculator” on the right hand side (you’ll need Excel). That will help you estimate the savings from an appliance upgrade.