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- Home Energy Saver is a set of on–line resources developed by the U.S. Department of Energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory intended to help consumers and professional energy analysts, analyze, reduce, and manage home energy use. The Home Energy Saver energy assessment tool allows consumers to conduct a do-it-yourself home energy audit and provides specific recommendations to help lower household energy consumption and utility costs. By entering a zip code, users get estimates for typical and efficient homes in their area. The estimates break down energy consumption by "end use". End uses reported by Home Energy Saver include: heating, cooling, water heating, major appliances, small appliances, and lighting. The more details a user enters, (e.g., insulation levels, roofing, age of major equipment, how systems are used) the more customized the assessment results and energy efficiency recommendations become. The tailored reports allows consumers to drill into estimated cost of improvements, anticipated payback time, projected utility bill savings, and how much energy use and green house gas production will be reduced. Consumers can vary the energy efficiency assumptions and the upgrade costs, (e.g., replacing the default values with actual estimates from contractors) and recalculate the payback times and other details. The Home Energy Saver website includes a section called LEARN which offers tips about energy savings, an explanation of the house-as-system energy efficiency approach, and other information to help people understand how energy is used in a home. When launched in 1994, Home Energy Saver was the first and only online home energy calculator. Thereafter, 6 million people have used it to analyze their home energy use. Nearly 1 million people visit the site each year. In 2009, a second version of the tool, Home Energy Saver Professional, was launched. This advanced version provides a low cost, interactive energy simulation/assessments tool for contractors, building professionals, weatherization professionals, and building designers. (en)
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