The Energy Information Agency (EIA) says that nearly 1/3 of American households report some difficulty paying their energy bills or keeping their homes comfortable. One in five reported forgoing essential expenses like food and medicine in order to pay their utility bills, and about 14% received a disconnection notice.
According a study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, low-income households experience this burden more acutely. That seems pretty much a given, as those with less disposable income have less ability to invest in making their homes more efficient. It also falls disproportionately on people of color, the elderly, and renters. The experts define 6% of household income to be an upper bound to the reasonable range of “affordable” energy expense. If your energy costs you more than this, consider yourself one of the people in the “energy affordability gap”. You’re not alone; about one-fourth of households overall, and two-thirds of low-income households experience this gap. To read more about it, check out this blog post from ACEEE.
What can you do about it? SimplEnergy would like to help. Send us a message and let us know your story. There are a number of rograms to help you with energy-efficiency retrofits, and if it’s done right, it should pay for itself over time with the energy savings. Every situation is unique, and we will put science and engineering to work to figure out what is best for you.
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