EcoRenovator  

Go Back   EcoRenovator > Improvements > Conservation
Advanced Search
 


Blog 60+ Home Energy Saving Tips Recent Posts Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-27-09, 12:14 PM   #11
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

I should also mention this has by far been the highest bill and was right around $320.

__________________
Current project -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
&
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-09, 06:25 AM   #12
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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.

Last edited by Daox; 08-19-09 at 07:40 PM..
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-19-09, 07:30 PM   #13
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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.

Last edited by Daox; 08-19-09 at 07:45 PM..
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-31-09, 11:19 AM   #14
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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.


Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	energytracking.JPG
Views:	1083
Size:	50.0 KB
ID:	299  
__________________
Current project -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
&
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Last edited by Daox; 08-31-09 at 11:44 AM..
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-09, 09:50 PM   #15
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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
__________________
Current project -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
&
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Last edited by Daox; 11-03-09 at 06:04 AM..
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-18-09, 07:56 PM   #16
AC_Hacker
Supreme EcoRenovator
 
AC_Hacker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
Thanks: 303
Thanked 723 Times in 534 Posts
Default 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
AC_Hacker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-09, 05:59 AM   #17
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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.
__________________
Current project -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
&
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Last edited by Daox; 11-03-09 at 06:04 AM..
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-09, 05:03 PM   #18
AC_Hacker
Supreme EcoRenovator
 
AC_Hacker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
Thanks: 303
Thanked 723 Times in 534 Posts
Default Post Spreadsheet?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
I just threw this spreadsheet together real quick. I thought it made for some interesting info.
Daox,

Why don't you post your spreadsheet?

-AC_Hacker
AC_Hacker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-09, 06:04 PM   #19
Daox
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 5,525
Thanks: 1,162
Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts
Default

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.

Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	kwhusage.jpg
Views:	1872
Size:	88.0 KB
ID:	512  
Attached Files
File Type: xls EnergyTracking.xls (54.5 KB, 923 views)
__________________
Current project -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
&
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Daox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-09, 07:03 PM   #20
AC_Hacker
Supreme EcoRenovator
 
AC_Hacker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
Thanks: 303
Thanked 723 Times in 534 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
Ideas are quite welcome.
I think it's great just like it is.

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

Attached Files
File Type: xls EnergySheet.xls (23.0 KB, 943 views)
AC_Hacker is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Tags
track energy

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:23 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Ad Management by RedTyger
Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design