And now for our electric consumption from the last 35 months:
The blue line is daily consumption (kWh) averaged over 10 days, the red is the daily average for the preceeding 6 months, and the yellow is for the preceeding year.
Most of the larger consumption reduction projects (
super efficient refrigerator, CFL lights, power strips on all electronics, etc.) were done just before I started logging data, so the graph starts at an already lowered level.
Noticed how the annual (yellow) consumption starts to rise in mid-2009 and then plummets a year later? Well, here's the story: Around August 2009 Dad-in-law decided to replace our driveway gate to open automatically.
A year later I find out that the motor is sucking more than 30 watts 24/7! It was pulling our consumption up so much that other attempts to save electricity went unnoticed. So since mid-2010 I've been flipping its circuit breaker off unless needed and that really makes a difference. Unfortunately, Dad-in-law can't be forced to cooperate, so it's up to me to make sure the gate is not unpowered when he needs it, so I flip it on each time I leave the house for more than 10 minutes. At the moment it's off about 70% of the time.
As mentioned in the previous post, the central heating boiler is set to a higher temperature. This means that it and its 100 watt circulation pump are on for less time before the thermostat turns it off. I'm not sure if this makes any difference, it's probably not more than 20-50 Wh per day.