About a month ago, my utility company sent an email letting me know that my energy consumption drastically increased. Under normal circumstances, I would be surprised by this email because I am a creature of habit and I’m very conservative when it comes to energy consumption in my home. Well, the reason for the increase was that I had family members staying with me for 2 weeks and during that time, we cooked a lot, watched lots of TV, did laundry, spent a lot of time in the A/C, and so much more. So, naturally, with an extra 4 people in my house, this would trigger more energy consumption. Since there was no need for alarm, I just read the email and deleted it from my inbox. But in hindsight, I should have saved the email because it provided energy saving tips. It was well documented and provided data on where I consumed the most energy. Of course, it was from my HVAC unit. According to the email, my HVAC unit is responsible for 51% of the energy consumption in my home. And 51% sounds like a huge portion of the bill, considering all the other machines, appliances, and other devices that I have in my home. Aside from the refrigerator, the HVAC unit is the appliance that runs the most, so that it could keep my house comfortable. And there really isn’t much else I can do to conserve energy. I already keep the thermostats at the recommended temperature of 78 degrees, and I also get the unit serviced yearly. Of course, my utility company doesn’t know this, all they have is the data that they collect.