A gentle, non-technical introduction to how energy is used in your home to heat and cool. Examples using a simple one-screen spreadsheet show you exactly how much you can expect to save.
My Story
Back in ’94, I was a consulting engineer with an architectural engineering firm in Austin, Texas. A Clear Channel (now iHeart Radio) station was down the hall, on the top floor at 800 Barton Springs Road. One day, riding up the elevator with a big shot from the radio station, I made casual conversation.
“Ya’ll should have energy tips on your AM show.”
Thus was born “BTU Bill’s Energy Tips,” regular 30-second spots on their AM talk/news station, KFON. This was back when Austin was green. (My redneck bigot boss absolutely hated “tree huggers.) Here’s an official flyer. (PDF)
The Austin-American Statesman had a small box on the front page near the masthead where they put my one-sentence energy tips every day. They did that for a couple of years, in parallel with my energy tips radio show. (The Statesman offices were right down the block.) Austin was a decent place to live back then, a medium-sized university town with green values and a conscience.
They canceled the show in 1997 when KFON went to a sports station. By that time, Austin was high-tech (Dell computers, etc.) and above doing that environmental mischief. Got run off my job, too – Texas and Big Oil. Cats and dogs when it comes to saving energy.
About the Book
BTU Bill’s Guide is written for people who are absolutely clueless about energy, focusing on the home. This is an ideal introduction! There are so damn many complicated tech gadgets in our lives these days (this was before smartphones or the big internet buildout); this is your chance to reduce that tech anxiety a few notches and feel comfortable in your home.
The second half of the book includes several case studies of the same house in different cities across the US, showing how to save energy through different roof or wall colors, window glazing, and HVAC efficiency. The results are calculated using a free one-screen spreadsheet, Energy Auditor 2.0. (free download at this page)
The last section has many energy tips from my radio show and The Statesman’s front-page box. It’s a fun little book that will hopefully motivate (and educate you) to save energy. Recently, I went hog wild on an energy tips craze and wrote 1001 Energy Tips. And yes, there are over one thousand no-cost and low-cost ways to save energy in that book.
Read Your Free Copy
Preview/Buy the book from the publisher’s page. You can also set up Energy Auditor 2.0 to explore energy-saving solutions for your own home.
WH Clark, P.E.