Go Green with the Library: Energy Calculators
February 19, 2016
Winter has certainly arrived, but now is a great time to know how well your home or business is energy efficient. Energy calculators can help you measure how much energy and money you spend on different areas of your home.
The Albright Memorial Library currently has a Thermal Leak Reader and a Kill A Watt Detector available for patrons to borrow and use in their homes or businesses. 
These items can be borrowed for one week using your Lackawanna County Library System library card.
Energy.gov breaks down their list of calculators into seven categories: Commercial Heating and Cooling, Residential Heating and Cooling, IT and Electronics, Lighting, Appliances, Food Service, and Other. Under each category, you will find several calculators.
For example, you can see how much energy your heater uses by downloading the Electric and Gas Water Heaters calculator under the Residential Heating and Cooling category. When you click on the link for the calculator, it will open up a form that allows you to add in details about your heater such as how many heaters you have in your home and how long you run it.
Once you fill out all the information, the calculator will give you an estimate of how much energy and money you spend. Energy.gov calculators also allow you to see the money you can save with energy efficient appliances.
UGI has energy calculators that can fill in missing information based off of the average statistics for where you live. Their Home Energy Saver calculator will fill in the average amounts based on your zip code for any questions you cannot answer.
You can access all of these websites through the computers in the reference department. All you need is a library card.
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