What your email address says about your energy use

By Jeff Postelwait
Online Editor

Do you Yahoo? Maybe you prefer Gmail. But did you know what email address you're registered with could reveal something about how much energy you use at home?

According to energy efficiency technology firm Opower, Yahoo Mail users could be paying $110 more annually on their energy bills than people who use Google's Gmail.

It's not that the act of sending emails eats up less energy if you use Gmail. This analysis has more to do with demographics. Opower looked at the overall household energy use of 2.8 million households across the country. Of those, roughly 1.15 million of them used either Gmail or Yahoo.

The average Yahoo Mail household used 11 percent more electricity than a Gmail household. The Yahoo users are eating up nearly a whole megawatt-hour more ever year than Gmail users.

Why is that? Well, Opower thinks the people who prefer Yahoo are more likely to live in larger households and use more energy per square foot. Gmail users typically are city dwellers who live in more compact, energy-efficient housing. Gmail users are also more likely to take an interest in their home energy usage by signing up for an energy audit or similar program.

So if you are interested in using less energy in your house, it's not as simple as registering for a new email account. It's more that people who care a little more than average about cutting their energy use tend to prefer Gmail over Yahoo. No matter what email you use, though, there are still plenty of things you can do to use less energy.