Do not beat yourself up. With 3 kids at home, you are doing good. You would do better if your house was better insulated. There used to be a company called Sustainable Spaces that did whole house efficiency modeling for $500, but they are no longer in this business. Try finding someone who does this, they'll tell you exactly where your heat is going. That's what I did. My gas usage is comparable to yours, and my electricty usage is 30% higher. We have a similar setup: 2 adults and 3 kids at home most of the time, Bay Area. My disadvantages are bigger house (2000sq/ft), and a pool. I love comfort, so my thermostat is at 68/66 all the time, and my halogen torches turn night into day. But the real reason for this comment is to rant about Corporate Social. Corporate Social adapts superficial social features, without actually creating a community. My theory is that corporations love certain aspects of community building: members do a lot of work (you buying efficient bulbs), emotional connection. But they hate other stuff (communities can be messy, you need to police them, give them tools, they can turn against you). That's why forums still thrive, they really are a community. Power companies community comparassance report could be so much more useful. As is, it is not of much use to me because: 1) I do not know who they are comparing me with, and 2) doing something about it is hard, requires a lot of work. I'd love to know who the other families are, and I'd love to do whatever they are doing. There is no way for me to find this out. Power company has this information, it'd be so easy to expose it, and give comparable homeowners a forum. Wish they'd publish an API so we could build these tools for them.