Tallahassee’s Energy Services department explains how energy is used in a home:

• Energy use can vary widely from house to house in Tallahassee.

• Newer homes tend to show lower usage than older homes.

• Shaded homes usually use less cooling energy in summer, but more heating energy in winter.

• Larger families use proportionally more energy than smaller families for water heating, clothes washing, cooking and clothes drying.

• However, costs for heating and cooling a home or apartment are often the same whether you’re home or at work, unless you choose different thermostat settings while you’re at work.

• Likewise, costs for heating and cooling a home or apartment are often the same for one occupant or many. The cost to cool a vacant apartment is about the same as for the same apartment occupied by one student, or two students, or three students, and so forth. Cooling costs reflect house or apartment size, equipment efficiency and thermostat settings; cooling costs do not usually reflect the number of occupants.

• Different families in similar homes with similar equipment can have very, very different overall home energy costs because of differing appliance use habits and differing thermostat settings.