After learning of Al Gore’s huge appetite for electricity at his Nashville home, I dug out my past electricity bills for comparison. 

Gore has a huge mansion to power, but he also consumes four times more electricity per square foot than my family. Is the inventor of the Internet running a computer server farm out of his home?

According to news accounts, Gore’s home is 10,000 square feet and he consumes 221,000 kwh of electricity per year.

My family’s home is 3,200 square feet and we consume 18,000 kwh per year.

Gore’s home is about three times larger than ours, but he consumes 12 times more power. Thus, adjusting for home size, Gore is plowing through four times the electricity. 

Our house has drafty doors and cathedral ceilings causing our electric heat pump to work overtime–it is not a model green home by a long shot. Thus, how Mr. Gore and family manage to vastly out-consume us per square foot is a big mystery.