On track for another record low month

My TED 5000 Dashboard (4/16/2013)

Yes...I'm a little excited right now...but it looks like I'm on track for a new record low month. 

Wait a second, you say?  But the picture above shows you using more than the last record month (October 2012). 

Hold onto your hats, I say!  This month started out cold and I was still using heat until about April 6/7th!  It's now ~10 days later and my heat is turned off.  Check out the Day History below... 

Historical Data

 

From the pic above in the Daily History you can see 2 days where I was below 10 kWh/day.  That one day (4/12) was my lowest energy usage day ever..and I was at home which includes the AM showers before work.  Granted, I will concede, both days I ate out (Thursday after Ultimate, Friday after golf).  Tuesday (10.3 kWh/d) and Wednesday (10.4 kWh/d) incldues cooking.   Either way, take the last week (Mon 4/9--> Sun 4/14)..I've averaged 11.96 kWh/d.

 

Well..through today, I've used an average of ~15.3 kWh/day (221 kWh).  I need to lower that to <14.6 kWh/day to equal my October 2012 record.   I would need to average 14.44 kWh/day for the next 15 days to match that record.  If I go conservative on my last weeks usage and I average 13 kWh/day for the next 15 days, then I'll average 13.88 kWh/day which will be a new record. 

 

***GIGGIDTY***

 

Stay tuned for the official results.

 

BTW...you may have noticed the TED Monthly Historical my March 2013 usage of 25,219 kWh.  Obviously this is a mistake given last months blog posting.  This is a bug in the TED5000 software whenever there's a power outage.  I'm not sure why but it registered that I used ~4,000 kWh from 3/18 (19:00 hours) to 3/19 (0:00 hours). The folks at Energy Inc (maker of the TED5000) know this and are working on a way to mitigate this issue (TED recognizes and skips or users edit it out or whatever).  It's pretty annoying, yes...and I hope it gets resolved soon.

 

Another Update...my TED 5000 display charging base broke the other day. This is a case where I can actually blame the cat for something (yes, that was the cat farting....not me....).  Shew was rubbing against the unit (happy kitty?) and it just fzzled and stopped working.  The display works fine when I take it out of the charger as it goes to battery mode.  But when I put it into the base, the screen goes blank.  Although my unit was out of warranty, I'm lucky enough that the base is only $15 to replace.  I contacted Energy Inc and a new one is in the mail. 

 

April Bill - Good and Not So Bad?

Howdy Readers-

Another month has passed (roughly) since my last post.  Time sure flies by doesn't it?  Well, it's been a COLD spring so far down in the Southeast US.  Only in the past week has it finally been above 60F consistently.  I say this as I glance outside where its supposed to be a high of 48F, gloomy, and rainy all day.  *UGH* 

Although the forecast does call for sun this weekend with temperatures in the high 60s.  Yippie!

So...let's see where we ended up this month, shall we?

April 2012
Total Energy Consumption:  704 kWh
Number of Days:  32
Average Daily Consumption:  22.0 kWh/day
Heating Degree Days:  117  (note:  only 14 days actual had HDDs)
Energy Consumption per HDD:  2.63 kWh/HDD (based on 14 days)

April 2013 (Mar 4 - Apr 2)
Total Energy Consumption:  737 kWh
Number of Days:  29
Average Daily Consumption:  25.41 kWh/day
Changed versus previous year:  -15.5%
Bill Savings vs 2012 Consumption:  -$0.52
Heating Degree Days:  444  (note:  28 days actual had HDDs)
Energy Consumption per HDD:  1.60 kWh/HDD 
kWh/HDD Savings vs 2012:  39.1%

OK...so at first glance, I did worse than last year.  I used about 16% MORE energy, but luckily it only cost me a whopping $0.52 more.  I think I can deal.  However, when you factor how cold it was this year as opposed to last year, then I'm doing just fine.  If I include the HDDs, I was roughly 39% MORE EFFICIENT than last year. 

 I will say that this was tricky to look at because I had to make an "executive decision" on how to quantify days that had zero HDDs.  For the month of April 2012, if I included all 32 days in my calculation, then it would have said I used ~6 kWh/HDD.  Yes, that's a valid number, but its highly skewed because for nearly most of the month had no heating was needed so it's only looking at my "base" consumption at the time.  So that doesn't give a good indication.  So instead I only used the number of days an actual HDD was recorded.  I did the same for my 2013 values.  This brought the values more in line for as shown below:

2011-2012
12/2011 = 2.16 kWh/HDD
01/2012 = 2.45 kWh/HDD
02/2012 = 1.90 kWh/HDD
03/2012 = 2.14 kWh/HDD
04/2012 = 2.63 kWh/HDD

2012-2013
12/2012 = 1.82 kWh/HDD
01/2013 = 1.75 kWh/HDD
02/2013 = 1.73 kWh/HDD
03/2013 = 1.45 kWh/HDD
04/2013 = 1.60 kWh/HDD

OK...so this makes sense to me.  I'm trending as expected.  So I'm going to consider this a "minor" victory. 

I really don't have any energy efficiency projects in the near future.  Closest that once could even consider may be new window shades in the upstairs.  As we prepare the nursery for the arrival of our twins, I would like to put in some nicer shades than the cheap versions (old school pull down things that I can never get it to stay when I pull it down).  I was thinking about window films.  I tossed in an example link.   I get a little security benefit from it (you can't just smash a window anymore as the window film holds the glass in place...at least for a little while) not to mention some privacy too.  An then there's the potential energy savings too.  We'll see...I contacted my local firm to see how much it would cost.  I'm just curious right now...but if the price is right, I may do it.    I'll let y'all know... 

 

October Bill - Lowest Month Ever! - 39% Reduction

Hi All!

I've been excited to see what this month's results would be and it really blew my socks off.  It was my lowest energy usage month EVER in the new house.  It even compares to the days when I was living in my former townhome (which was built in 2005 with gas heating, cooking, and water heating).   The results are below:

October 2011 Bill
Total Consumption:  771 kWh
Days:  32
Average Daily Usage:  24.09 kWh/day
Bill:  $79.75

October 2012 Bill (September 4 -October 2nd)
Total Consumption:  409 kWh
Days:  28
Average Daily Usage:  14.61 kWh/day
Bill:  $49.91
% Reduction in Energy:  39.4%
Bill Savings (based on current average rate of $0.113/kWh) = $37.36

So this bill breaks the previous record set in June 2011:

Lowest bill:  $49.91 vs $53.54...and this includes a hike in rates!
Lowest Monthly Consumption:  409 kWh vs 526 kWh.  While June2011 has 2 more days in the billing month, if we tack on another 2 days at ~15 kWh/day I'd STILL be way under (439 kWh vs 526 kWh).
Lowest Average Daily Consumption:  14.61 kwh vs 17.53 kWh

I mentioned my previous townhome which was building in 2005 (1,300 sf, gas heating, cooking, and hot water).  If I compare the usage there in the "swing months" where I wasn't using any HVAC, I averaged 14.3 kWh/day (~414 kWh).   Recall...my current home is 2,700 sf built in 1984 with electric everything.  So needless to say, I'm thrilled that I've done so great.

Kudos to the GE Geospring ASHP Water Heater which was no doubt, responsible for helping me significantly reduce my consumption.  And to think that half the month was without it too...

Next up...I ordered my new Ecobee Smart Thermostats.  Once those come in and I set them up I'll have my HVAC system as fully optimized as I can get it along with monitoring.  I'll give y'all the low down in about a week when they arrive and I install them.

Also, I'm working on getting the HTPC to shutdown and wake up.  I can do it manually, but I just need to figure out how to get it going automatically.  I'm not a big linux guy so it'll take a while for me to figure it out. This task alone should save me an additional 1.84 kWh/day (13%)

May Energy Usage, Dehumidifer

Hello all, I'm back.

Below is my May 2012 Energy Usage numbers from Duke Energy:

Total KWH:  689  (TED measured = 696 kWh)
No. of Days:  33
May 2012 Average Daily Usage:  20.88 kWh/day
May 2011 Average Daily Usage:  17.53 kWh/day
Comparison:  -19.1%

I'm not surprised by these numbers.  It was a hot May and we were forced to use our A/C for at least a week.  In addition, in May 2011, I had not yet installed the crawl space dehumidifier.  That was installed on June 6, 2011 (exactly 1 year ago...look at that).  One thing I have found since then, is that the dehumidifer is an energy hog (and it's Energy Star rated!).  I plugged it into my Kill-a-watt meter and measured the usage for  a couple days.  I found out that the unit is using roughly 7 kWh/day.  Wowza!  That's 33% of my average daily usage during the 'fringe' seasons (when the HVAC is not in use).

So what do I do about it?  Well...I think the only thing I CAN do about it, is to go ahead with my house residing project.  When I do this, I plan to install housewrap (maybe even some polystyrene insulation).  The housewrap is supposed to help reduce air movement (and thus MOIST air movement) which should help significantly and reduce crawl space dehumidifer usage.

Why do I think that?  Well...here's my thoughts:  When I turned on the A/C (which dehumidifies) last month I did not notice any reduction in crawl space dehumidifer usage (and I was watching)...as my initial theory was that the rest of the house was responsible for the permeation of humidity in the crawl space.  To test this out,  moved the dehumidifer to the house and ran it.  Guess what?  The crawls space humidity increased to 65% (slowly) even though the rest of the house was at 55%.    So that wasn't it...so my next theory formed...the humidity is entering the crawl space from the wall cavaties.  This would make sense because the walls terminate at the crawl space.  Because I have painted walls (who knows how many layers), this creates a fairly impermeable membrane on the interior walls...so where does the humidity go?  Well...down to the crawl space where the dehumidifer is drawing air and creating a gradient.  Thus, by putting on the houswrap/insulation...I'll create an effective air barrier on the EXTERIOR walls...which should significantly reduce the amount of moist air entering the crawl space. And I'm certain air is entering the wall cavity beause most of my exterior lights have holes directly to the interior wall. 

That re-siding project is going to be pretty expensive ($8-10k), but at least it will help my house look nice while simutaneously increasing energy efficiency.  I highly doubt I'm going to emark on the project soon.  Maybe this fall at the earliest...

Yesterday's Energy Usage

OK...so here's the last couple days of energy usage for my home:

Can you tell when the heat turns on when I get up?  Yeah...pretty obvious.  Not to mention that it's been in the 20s outside the past couple of AMs (highs around 50).  To set the stage...I currently have air source 2 heat pumps for heating and cooling, one upstairs and one downstairs.  They are old...11-12 years old.  The air handlers are even OLDER....they were MFRed in 1984 (my house was built in 1986).  Well...air source heat pumps really don't work under 32-35F.  So they are equipped with electric heat strips (10kW) for days of low temperatures.  Well...these heat pumps are just killing me.  Over the last two days I've used the following amounts of power according to TED:
Tuesday 1/4:  84 kWh
Monday 1/3: 68 kWh
Sunday 1/2:  32 kWh (low temp ~40F, high temp ~64F)
So, when I look at where my power is going....it's nearly all going to heating...with a significant chunk by the auxiliary heat.  There's some going to hot water (electric again) after showers, but generally that's short-term, but that still adds to the peaks.  If you compare to Sunday...when we were home all day, we used half as much power because temperatures were warmer which meant there wasn't a need for the auxiliary heat.

And before you ask...I do use programmable thermostats.  My upstairs heating temperatures moves from 62F (away/sleeping) to 67F (home/awake)...while downstairs I'm a little more 'liberal' at 62F to 68F.  As my wife says every winter, "say goodbye to this" as she bundles up.  If we have company (which isn't all that often), I may splurge and bump up the downstairs temperature to 69F.

Anyhow, "luckily" my air source heat pumps are dying, according to my HVAC tech.  I've already spent around $600 on those units since I've moved in (March 2010).  This is one of the main reasons why I'm going to replace that system with a ground source (geothermal) heat pump.  These units are somewhere around 3-5x more efficient at heating, 1.5-2x more efficient for cooling, and they can produce my hot water.  For more information see:  http://www.geoexchange.org/.  Fear not...I'll keep you posted when this endeavor kicks off.