ENERGY COSTS? HOW MUCH PER PERSON DO YOU SPEND PER YEAR?

 The average person in the United States spends over $2200 per year, in travel energy, (gas for your car for example), plus $800 per person for home lights, AC, heating. If you have a family of 4, you are spending, on average over $12,000 per year, for energy.  You could give yourself a sizable raise just by using solar, or by putting more insulation in your house. Or what if you put timers on your lights, or drove a more efficient vehicle?  My VW gets over 40 miles per gallon but my Toyota Pick up only gets 14 miles per gallon.   So I can drive 700 miles on a 17 gallon tank of gas in my VW, but the same trip in my Toyota truck costs me 3.5 times more. We at: Environmental Solutions have long encouraged more solar power, more wind power, more efficient vehicles, and more efficient home insulation systems.  Real Estate Appraisals show that new homes, some as large as 3,000 s.f., have utility bills under $150 per month, while older less efficient homes often pay $800 up to $1,200 per month.  One of these days, Americans are going to wake up and figure out that they can give themselves a raise, just by being smart and progressive on energy issues. 

  One  must wonder what it is like per state.  Note the chart, the more expensive your energy is, the "redder" your state is".   You can click on the "live" map at: http://energy.gov/articles/how-much-do-you-spend

Oddly, Texans spend more in energy than the national average, and Texas is an oil and gas production state. But HVAC, (air conditioning and heating) are big cost items in Texas. We often hear of those big Texas homes costing $1,200, $1500 or more in electric bills to heat those ranch homes.  One would think that Texans, would capture the sun and the wind there, and give themselves a raise.

But take a look at Oklahoma just north of Texas. $3,783 per year per person. Oklahoma is an expensive place to live.