Cut Your Energy Bill Twice: a DIY Home Audit Plus Weatherization Assistance and Stackable Rebates

Diagnose the bills and the envelope

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  1. Pull a twelve-month bill baseline
    45 min

    If a shutoff, a disconnection notice, or another bill emergency is already underway, dial 211 so United Way can connect a local utility-assistance specialist. That network is available around the clock; the referral is separate from this playbook’s weatherization file. Then continue and still pull the statements — later savings are judged against this baseline, not against a memory of last winter.

    What to have ready: the online login for the serving electric account; the login or paper bills for gas if that account exists; delivery receipts for propane, heating oil, or other delivered fuel if those heat the home.

    Log into the serving electric utility’s website and open billing history or usage history. Download the raw statements for the last twelve months (the utility’s PDF or export). Do not treat an on-screen usage graph as the record: graphs are redrawn, estimated reads appear without a stored statement, and history can vanish after an account change.

    Repeat with the gas utility if that account exists. Read whether each bill reports therms, CCF, or another unit, and use that same unit in every gas row. If heat comes from a delivered fuel, add every delivery that falls in the same twelve-month window — date, quantity in the unit on the receipt, and dollars.

    When all twelve rows exist, name the costliest summer month and the costliest winter month from those rows. Those two periods are the comparison pair after a later heating or cooling season of new bills.

    To do

    • Ask United Way for a local utility-assistance specialist; that referral is not part of the weatherization file

    • Use the billing contact on the last statement; the printout or export is what closes the baseline

    To note down

    Optional

    One row for each of the last twelve months, copied from the downloaded statements or delivery receipts

    Row numberMonth and yearElectricity (kWh)Other fuel quantityOther fuel unit (therms, CCF, gallons, or none)Dollars billed that monthRemove
    No rows yet.
    Optional

    Tick each set once the downloads or receipts covering those twelve months are in hand

    • Electric utility billing-history statements (twelve months)
      Upload
    • Gas utility statements (twelve months), if that account exists
      Upload
    • Delivered-fuel receipts for the same twelve months, if that heat exists
      Upload
    Optional

    Copy both from the twelve rows, using the month and year printed on the bills