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Old 07-18-15, 01:32 AM   #5
MN Renovator
Less usage=Cheaper bills
 
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From 12/16/2014 to 6/17/2015 my usage was 330kwh, 55kwh for those months.
For the past 30 days I've used 160kwh because I've used the air conditioning to keep things comfortable and to keep the dew point low enough to prevent mold in the basement.
It's funny how the past 30 days has been half the usage of a 6 month period.

I'm confident I can close out this year with under 1200kwh usage for the year in the 50-100kwh average usage category. This won't be possible if I get a roommate.

In the future I'm planning to add extra shade to the 'sunny in the evening' side of the house and install a mini-split 9k or 12k heat pump with an excellent HSPF and some super SEER figure and use that instead of the 8.5 SEER 1980's 2 ton Junkitrol that I've been using. I'm also planning to go the super insulation route and then I'll probably ditch the natural gas because it will be cheaper to be fully electric versus paying the fixed fees to be connected. I'll eventually electric car at some point too.

Basically I'll go from very little usage to a pile(relative to 1200kwh/year) if I decide to heat with heat pumps and a form of electric hot water along with an electric car.

..but define usage. Over the past 6 months I've captured 2330kwh from the 3.36kwh PV system on my roof. In other words I've used 18% of the power from my roof and the rest is coming in via checks from the power company. I've produced 5.5 times the amount of energy I used. I need to find a way to consume more in a useful/non-wasteful fashion. An electric car isn't an affordable option yet, the purchase price is too high versus a sub-$3k car that's EPA rated for 70mpg highway to make financial or practical sense to buy one at this point.
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