You’re sittin’ around, thinkin’ you’re green. Whoa there. National Grid has something to tell you.

“You used 140% more natural gas than your neighbors.”

That’s what they told us in November. It didn’t get better over the next months. We were still using almost 100 percent more gas than our neighbors, according to the Home Energy Report, comparing us to 100 randomly selected, anonymous neighbors within a .08 mile radius.

This situation was lowering my self esteem. I am a responsible citizen who protects our planet. I recycle with devotion, turn off lights, use CFL bulbs, and lower the thermostat during the day. Our house has energy efficient windows where they can’t be seen from the street, and the walls were insulated in a 2003 remodel. We close curtains when it gets really cold. How could we be so profligate compared to our neighbors, who can’t even put their trash in the right bags or out on the right day?

So I called National Grid, which supplies gas to 155,200 customers in Boston.

“There must be some mistake,” I say.

“No mistake,” they say. They are comparing us to other living units about the same size as ours that use gas for heating, as we do. Reports go to 8,400 National Grid gas customers in Boston, says spokeswoman Amy Zorich.

How do they know how big my house is? They gather the information from Boston assessment records, she says. By now Monica Ibrahim, program manager in energy efficiency, is involved.

“This is a way to track your energy usage each month,” she said about the reports. “You can use this to save more. “

Monica pointed out that our usage was less in December. “It’s looking like you are starting to improve,” she said.

Unfortunately for that theory, we were gone for more than a week in December, so we used less of everything. She suggested I call MassSave for an energy audit. She helped set it up.

While I waited for my audit, I contacted several friends. Did they get an energy report? If so, how were they doing compared to their neighbors?

Not well. Almost everyone said they were 100 percent over their neighbors, so I didn’t feel so lonely in my bad habits. One person said he didn’t believe the report and had thrown it away. My next door neighbor, whose living quarters are almost the same as ours, said she thought they were trying to sell her something, so she threw her report away too.

One Chinatown condominium owner reported that his report showed he used 51 percent more gas than his neighbors, and he isn’t even living there, since his unit is being renovated.

A Joy Street resident said she and her husband used one percent more than their neighbors. That was the best report so far.          A friend in the Back Bay had better news. Her report ranked her in the middle of usage with 100 of her neighbors. But she was puzzled since several of her neighbors go away for the winter, and the house next door is heated but the owners have never occupied it, though National Grid wouldn’t know that.

Contacting others didn’t solve the mystery of why our natural gas use was so much higher than our neighbors’ and neither did the MassSave no-cost audit.

Mark Pignatelli, a good-looking young man from Western Massachusetts with a degree in environmental studies from Humboldt State in California, politely covered his shoes with paper booties while he went through the house. He lives in the Fenway, so he knows city circumstances. He is a manager at MassSave, having spent three years as an energy auditor, so I had confidence in his opinion. He reported that, even with a machine that identified cold spots, he couldn’t find anything in our house that would contribute to higher usage than our neighbors.

But, of course, he didn’t know our neighbors.

He said gas use depends on many factors. How many people live in the place? How well is it insulated? How tight are windows and other openings? How efficient is the furnace and water heater? Do you take long showers, use hot water for washing clothes, or run a dishwasher several times a day? What kind of distribution system—forced hot water, forced air, steam, radiant heat—is used? How many gas appliances are used? Do you cook? Is the home occupied during the day, on weekends, or empty for weeks at a time?

I can answer the questions, but we still don’t know why we use so much more gas than our neighbors.

Monica was as puzzled as I was when she heard Mark’s report, but she said it didn’t matter. It’s not a contest. She said the program started in Massachusetts in 2009, and studies show that the people who get the reports have reduced their gas use by 1 to 1 ½ percent, while no change was observed in customers who didn’t get the reports.

“The point is to help people become conscious of energy use,” she said. “It’s a tool to help our customers save energy and money.”

So it has worked. I think about it now, although I’m not sure I’m getting better. But one percent savings would be a start.