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Daox's energy use tracking
I'm so excited, haha. I've been waiting to get this so I can start doing more improvements to the house. I wanted at least somewhat of a general baseline to work from. Anyway, the total use for my 1600 sq. ft. home in the first month days was:
September: 428 kWh 13 therms of natural gas 26 heating degree days and 60 cooling degree days 21 day bill Extrapolated out to a 30 day month I'd estimate the following: 570 kWh 17 therms of natural gas So, this is my baseline to improve upon for summer months. This includes absolutely no heating. Its quite a bit higher than my useage for the two bedroom upper flat that I used to be in (278 kWh and 12 therms for 33 days), but that is to be expected. There are still a lot of incandescent lights in the house. These will be replaced in the near future. Latest usage: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...-energyuse.jpg |
Not bad; what is that like $30 (for your partial month)
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The bill came to $81 (for the 21 days). I pay about $.12 per kWh, and around $1.14 per therm for natural gas. I do pay a little extra ($.014 per kWh) for my electricity to come from renewable sources.
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Bill number two came today. The results are quite good IMO. After the first bill I did a big replacement of lights to CFLs. This is already starting to pay off! For having the heat on (not a ton) the gas useage really hasn't gone up much either. I did also tweak the water heater temp, but not by a lot.
October: 355 kWh 21 therms of natural gas 202 heating degree days and 68 cooling degree days 21 day bill The big plunge has yet to happen though. This weekend my cousin, his wife, and three kids (all 5 and under) will be moving in. With them home during the day I'm expecting useage to make a descent jump. Just more incentive to keep at it. :) |
The next bill came the other day. Looks pretty good IMO. Its definitely not the big plunge I was expecting. You can see usage is up a ton, but also remember I have five more people in the house now.
November: 432 kWh 61 therms of natural gas 559 heating degree days and 6 cooling degree days 29 day bill Next month I expect the electric to go up more due to shorter days and the entire duration of the billing cycle with 7 people in the house, and the gas will go up a descent amount as it gets colder out. |
not looking forward to mine. (should have it by friday) it's been very cold lately. usually i only let the house heat run in the morning and supplement w/ space heaters in the evening, but, lately i've been coming home to a 60 degrees house, so i need to turn on everything.
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Neeext. Temps were abnormally low this month along with lots of windy days. This wasn't a great month. Hopefully next month won't be so harsh.
December: 586 kWh 150 therms of natural gas 1225 heating degree days and 0 cooling degree days 33 day bill |
so your elec was a quite a bit lower, and gas just a lil higher than mine. pricewise (based only on avgs) your bill would be like $300 here. I gotta do some more playing with my stuff at my house, try to knock the elec back down.
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Bill is getting larger and larger! Hopefully the new cellulose insulation will kick down the bill. More to come on that in a bit. :)
January: 660 kWh 192 therms of natural gas 1588 heating degree days and 0 cooling degree days 35 day bill Its been coooold. Cellulose keep me waarm! :) As insaneintention mentioned, I wish they would keep the billing days the same! So far mine has jumped around from 29 to 35. |
that is weird...our utility dept bills from the 15th to the 15th.
It will be interesting to see how your insulation helps. |
I should also mention this has by far been the highest bill and was right around $320.
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February's bill is here.
February: 513 kWh 137 therms of natural gas 1174 heating degree days and 0 cooling degree days 29 day bill Considering the time frame of this bill, I'm calling this marginally acceptable. I had hoped the attic insulation would contribute a bit more. Heating degree days went down by 35%, and actual billing days went down by 20%. Yet, gas therm use only went down 40%. Considering it was 35% warmer this really isn't great at all. According to TimJFowler's formula, I dropped my consumption per heating degree day by a whopping 3.5%. It looks like I'll be looking into air infiltration as soon as I can. |
Long time and no updates to this thread. So, I'll give the stats on the months between.
March: 459 kWh 115 therms of natural gas 926 heating degree days and 3 cooling degree days 29 day bill April: 425 kWh 95 therms of natural gas 690 heating degree days and 5 cooling degree days 32 day bill May: 404 kWh 44 therms of natural gas 283 heating degree days and 29 cooling degree days 29 day bill June: 433 kWh 24 therms of natural gas 142 heating degree days and 80 cooling degree days 30 day bill July: 442 kWh 23 therms of natural gas 44 heating degree days and 253 cooling degree days 32 day bill So, the summer bills are pretty steady. The total monthly cost has been right around $90. |
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I just threw this spreadsheet together real quick. I thought it made for some interesting info.
The electric usage doesn't seem to vary a ton. The lowest bill I've had so far puts me at 13.3 kWh a day where as the largest was actually my first month in the house before installing CFLs at 20.4 kWh. That just goes to show how much of a hog lighting is. So, power usage only varys by ~50%. Opposite that, gas varys enormously. In summer we were using .72 therms a day with my cousin's family living with me. But, for heating in winter it jumps 763% to 5.49 therms per day. Also, it'll be quite nice to soon have a full year of numbers to look at to compare to this year. Of course, now we'll have five less people in the house, so that should make a very large difference. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1251735004 |
Woohoo, one year of bills has been completed. Next month I can start comparing to last year and see them all go down. :)
August: 341 kWh - 11.4 kWh per day 16 therms of natural gas - .53 therms per day 105 heating degree days / 146 cooling degree days 30 day bill |
Utility tracking...
Just got my "October" bill...
Gas for Oct 2009 = 7.3 therms over 32 days (.23 therms/day) Elec for Oct 2009 = 448 kWh over 31 days (14.45 kWh per day) I'm using gas for hot water (Bosch demand heater), and cooking. I usually keep the oven pilot off on the stove, but I forgot it for this billing period. Turned it off today, it should make a big difference. Some months, the charge for reading my gas meter is greater than my charge for gas. I have considered switching to propane. I'm using electric for the usual utiluties. I've been using CP lighting for some time, and have started using the lowest wattage CP bulbs I can find for fill lighting. Seven watts is the smallest so far. I have started to experiment with 2 watt (and smaller) LEDs for fill. I usually use 7 to 20 watt CP for task light, sometime 35 to 50 watt halogen, but rarely. I'm really liking the more subdued fill lighting. My home heating is from a 9,000 BTU Sanyo mini split (heat output is rated at 12,000 BTU), this is the smallest unit I could find. I have adopted a highly selective heating strategy and I now only heat those rooms that are actually in use. Regards, -AC_Hacker |
Finally inputting my September bill.
September 251 kWh - 8.1 kWh per day 42 therms of natural gas - 1.35 therms per day 502 heating degree days / 13 cooling degree days 31 day bill Last year this month was: 20.4 kWh per day .62 therms per day Last year was much warmer with only 26 heating degree days! Still, the electric use is down over 50% which puts a nice smile on my face. :) |
Post Spreadsheet?
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Why don't you post your spreadsheet? -AC_Hacker |
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That is a great idea and I thought I did haha. Here it is.
Since posting, I've added some additional and nice features to the spreadsheet. I now graph the electric usage, gas usage, and the total (combined) usage in kWh. I would like to incorperate the heating degree days and cooling degree days into the chart somehow too to show that X month was significantly hotter or cooler than Y month. Just haven't gotten that far yet. Ideas are quite welcome. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1257897737 |
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Maybe a Degree Day line... Also, maybe an optional carbon footprint calc. This would require a % loss estimate for electricity (40%?), and gasoline useage, and airline miles, etc. If I'm not mistaken, the Oregon Dept of Energy sheet I posted had something like that. FYI, here's another one I turned up on the web... Regards, -AC_Hacker |
Another long overdue update here.
October 283 kWh - 9.8 kWh per day 52 therms of natural gas - 1.79 therms per day 571 heating degree days / 2 cooling degree days 29 day bill Last year this month was: 16.9 kWh per day 1.0 therms per day (571 cooling degree days vs 202 last year) November no info atm December 300 kWh - 9.7 kWh per day 107 therms of natural gas - 3.45 therms per day 1079 heating degree days / 0 cooling degree days 31 day bill Last year this month was: 17.8 kWh per day 4.55 therms per day January 424 kWh - 12.1 kWh per day 159 therms of natural gas - 4.54 therms per day 1574 heating degree days / 0 cooling degree days 35 day bill Last year this month was: 18.9 kWh per day 5.49 therms per day So, overall things are definitely trending in the right direction. Gas use is down 20% with electric down 35% in January which is our worst month. Looks like I need to start posting graphs and stuff though. Too many numbers to look at. |
Wow, I just calculated my average energy usage per day with my spreadsheet... My house uses 91 kWh per day on average since I have moved in. Thats a crazy amount of energy! That could take you over 300 miles in an electric car... every day! Yikes.
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I'd create a single line for HDD/CDD, using whichever was higher for that month. It's not like you're going to turn on the A/C if you have 50 CDD in April. You can normalize that line to roughly the same scale as your KWh. I think =max(HDD, CDD)*.33 would do the trick, and give the rest of the data some context. Thanks for sharing your data. How's it been going lately? |
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Yeah, I haven't updated this thread in quite a while. I have been keeping track of the data for the most part in the spreadsheet though.
I guess I'll break the news, but Ben has started working on the energy tracker for the site so we can all track the info here and share it! I'm very excited about this. Anyway, here is what I have. Its not completely up to date, but a fair amount more than the last update. raw data - can't find november's data :mad: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284548791 electric usage http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284548791 gas usage http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284548791 total usage - gas converted to kWh based on BTU conversion plus electric kWh usage http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284548791 And this is the one that always really gets me down. This is the total average power usage PER DAY in kWh. Those numbers are so huge IMO. 86kWh is enough power to drive 300+ miles in an electric car. I'm using that much power on average EVERY DAY in my house. Thats just crazy to me. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284548791 |
A CNG Civic GX uses 0.41 therms/mi per EPA. So I figure you'd get 73mi in a CNG Civic, plus 40mi in an electric car, per day! That is quite a bit.
I see a BIG reduction in your electric usage this spring vs. last. How did you achieve that? |
The first year in the house I had my cousin's family living with me (him, his wife and three kids). Now, its just me and my wife. We're also much more energy conscious than they are (kids leave lights on, leave fridge door open, etc.).
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It's good to see your yearly average going down so fast. I started logging after ecomodding the house (cfl's, powerstrips, 1.25kWh/day fridge replaced with 0.7kWh/day model), so I didn't get to see the usage go down, only up (Dad-in-law keeps buying new energy hungry gadgets, like a 37" LCD and a r/c motor for the car gate which draws 30W 24/7:mad:)
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The first overall goal is kind of to consistently get my daily usage of electricity under 10 kWh per day. That shouldn't be too bad to do in summer, but its going to take a lot less furnace use in winter. With continued remodeling and adding insulation the winter gas usage should drop drastically which I really look forward to. Anyway, this reminded me to update my spreadsheet (also found my November mistake, woo). I'm not real sure why there was a big jump in energy usage in electric usage. I did install a window AC unit, but we really only used it a half dozen nights. I really didn't measure its energy usage with a killawatt though. Thats the only thing I can think of though. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284832393 |
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I'm really not sure when he'll have anything usable. I hope soon and I will be bugging him to get it done. I've really wanted this feature for as long as we've had this site up. |
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To fix my November mistake, I signed up for online billing. They also had an energy analysis feature that I decided to run through. It has a fair number of questions that help you identify ways to save on energy usage. Anyway, I thought I'd post the results. Nothing really surprising, but one or two things I hadn't really thought too much about. Here is my estimated energy break down.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284835202 Sadly, it looks like I'm doing decently well compared to most. You can tell this isn't the most accurate estimation though. My last January bill was ~$225. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1284835271 And, my top 10 ways to save energy (in no particular order) are: 1) Wrap water heater with an insulating blanket Implementation Cost: $23-$38 Annual CO2 Savings: 49 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $3-$4 I may or may not do this, its pretty old and I plan on going with tankless unit. 2) Take shorter showers Implementation Cost: $0 Annual CO2 Savings: 229 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $12-$21 Admittedly a weakness. I love a warm shower in the morning. Of course I'm using a low flow shower head. Just gotta make it an enclosed shower to increase comfort. :) 3) Maintain your water heater regularly Implementation Cost: $0 Annual CO2 Savings: 74 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $4-$7 I actually do this already. Its basically just draining it once a year to get rid of sediment build up. 4) Install heat traps on your water heater Implementation Cost: $45-$75 Annual CO2 Savings: 163 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $9-$15 This is one I really hadn't thought too much about. Apparently its a much larger deal though! This is one of the higher energy losses I'm having according to this rough analysis. I'd imagine this could be pretty easily fixed with a few shark bite connectors and some pex line. 5) Insulate hot water pipes if not already done Implementation Cost: $19-$31 Annual CO2 Savings: 52 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $3-$5 Some of the pipes are insulated, some aren't, and the ones that are done really aren't done all that great. This is an easy thing to do for a small improvement. 6) Wash full loads of dishes when possible Implementation Cost: $0 Annual CO2 Savings: 96 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $7-$11 Who doesn't do this, honestly? 7) Air dry dishes Implementation Cost: $0 Annual CO2 Savings: 63 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $4-$7 I do this already too. 8) Control air leakage Implementation Cost: $100-$300 Annual CO2 Savings: 1,119 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $61-$102 This is one I've been working on for a while, its a biggie for me in this old house. 9) Insulate your ducts Implementation Cost: $169-$281 Annual CO2 Savings: 185 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $10-$17 I should definitely do this. I don't have a lot of ductwork in unconditioned spaces (the basement). But, that just means it'll be a quick and easier job to take care of it and just get it done. 10) Seal leaks in air ducts Implementation Cost: $150-$250 Annual CO2 Savings: 608 lbs Annual Cost Savings: $33-$56 I did this last year and saw a huge difference in the velocity of the air coming out of my vents. Very much worth while and actually nowhere near $150-$250, more like $5 for a roll of aluminum tape. |
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Just got my bill for the September. Energy use is good considering last September has was a fair amount warmer. I can't attribute much to anything as the differences aren't too large, but I hope that reclaiming the attic heat will allow me to keep the heat off for a while longer yet.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1285245157 |
quick question. What temperature do you use for your degree days? I found a site that will give me the degree days for my location but it asks for the base building temperature defaulting to 15.5 C where other places I've read recommend changing it to 18 C
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I believe my utility uses 18C (65F).
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I used degreedays.net to populate my spreadsheet, and I used 60°F for HDD and 74°F for CDD, under the rationale that given that ambient temperature + typical sun loads, I might think about heating or cooling the place. But my degree days would probably better match my usage if I went with 55°F and 76°F.
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I considered using settings similar to my thermostat but that would really just work to flatten the numbers. I'd almost never have any CDD and the HDD would be lower then most other peoples calculations.
Sticking with 18 allows me to compare with others that used 18 but doesn't reflect the energy use reality much. For instance looking at the numbers I had 283.9 HDD and 53.1 CDD during the hottest July on record. I never once turned on the heat but did run the AC a couple of times... |
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New bill came today. I'm loving the online notification. I also hit an all time low for electric power usage this month! 8.03 kWh / day. This is still very high to me, so I will be on a hunt to reduce this further. I think I'm going to get a TED to help out. I've reduced the plug in items down to a point where I don't think I can do much more without replacing items or doing work to the house (I would LOVE to eliminate the need for a dehumidifier in the basement).
What kind of power usage are you guys seeing as far as kWh/day? Also, I recently added a new column to the spreadsheet, Gas in kWh to compare electric vs gas energy usage. As it stands, my gas in kWh is almost always higher than electric kWh usage, even in summer months. So, even though electricity costs more, gas is where most of my actual energy is being used by far. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1287756611 |
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Here is a visual representation of how much energy usage is gas vs electric. As you can see in summer it almost evens out. But, in winter it is drastically swayed to the gas side.
Gas = red Electricity = blue http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1287757614 |
So during the summer you use gas only for hot water and cooking, right? Seems like a lot.
[does some quick math] In our house it's also about equal: around 3.5kWh/day electricity and 0.25-0.3m3/day gas, which is something like 11kWh/m3, so about 3kWh/day. (These are just numbers off the top of my head, I may be waaaay off.) Hot water is from an oldish (~10 years) on-demand gas furnace, stove is gas, but oven electric. Hot water for drinking is from an electric jug. I've never compared gas with electricity using kWh. Next year we plan to install an electric water tank, so I'll keep an eye on changes. |
Wow, less than half my power consumption... show off. :P
Good to know its being done though. I was thinking I'd like to get down to 5/day. I now know less is quite viable. :) |
my house is 2400 sqft and there is myself, my wife and two kids under 3. Our usage when you convert gas to kwh is quite similar although my winter usage is lower which makes sense since it's pretty mild here.
winters I spike up to 52 kwh/day summers it's down to 20ish kwh/day since I very rarely need AC. This is with a 7ish year old electric hot water tank and an electric heat pump with an electric back up heater. When that backup heater kicks on the meter really spins. |
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