September Duke Energy Bill

Yes folks, yet another month has passed and I was waiting at the mailbox eager with anticipation...for a bill.  This month's electric bill came in and showed continued fantastic results:

Electricity Usage:  941 kWh
Days:  31
Avg Usage:  30.3 kWh/day
Comparing versus 2010:  37% savings (aka reduction in energy usage)
Comparing versus townhome of less than half this houses area (2009):  6% higher.

I'm thrilled.  It appears that we've had a consistent ~40% reduciton in energy usage.  And, I'm using about the same amount of total energy as if I were still in my former townhome.  Just sweet!

I would expect the savinsg to be more if I can figure out where the humidity is coming from in my crawl space.  I have the dehumidifier running 6 hrs on/6 hrs off.  During that time, the humidity drops to 45% when on...then raises to about 55-60% when off.  I'm not sure but it might be hitting the 45% humidity mark and turning off.  I need to check the manual to figure this out.  UPDATE:  Yes, I verified this and once it hits around 45% (the setting on the unit is 50%), it turns off....and then restarts again when the humidity increases. 

UPDATE on TED:  Energy Inc (the MFRs of the TED unit) sent me a new display.  Well, that one didn't work...it wouldn't connect to my gateway.  After discussions with tech support, apparently they sent me the wrong model (there is a series 21 and a series 20...I have a series 20).  That should arrive today.  It'll be nice to have the ole' TED display around again...

UPDATE 2:  FYI, my TED unit had 993 kWh for the month vs the 941 for Duke Energy.  That's a ~5% error difference.  I think the # of days was the same...but I think TED is setup to record from the 2nd to the 2nd, while Duke Energy this month went from the 6th to the 6th. 

UPDATE 3:  Well, the TED display arrived and this time it showed it was picking up a wireless signal, but again, it was not showing the data.  Hrmmph!  We'll see Tech support says this time.  I have a feeling it's a firmware issue.

UPDATE 4:  FYI...I have no idea why my August post is in front of my September post.  Maybe once I update this post it'll move it ahead...maybe...I hope... 

UPDATE 5:  I finally fixed that August post...someone is double-posted...so I just deleted it.  So very odd...

Initial Energy Savings! 30-40%!

Probably for the first time....I was super excited to get my Duke Energy bill.  This is one of the first bills to really show all my energy efficiency work.  What was the results?

Last month I used 526 kWh.  That's lowest we've had since moving in and equals 17.53 kWh/d.  That's even lower than the previous month (593 kWh) when we didn't use the HVAC at all.

How are we doing compared to last year?

March 2010 vs 2011:  34% less <---some heating until late in the month
April 2010 vs 2011:  4% less <---didn't use HVAC at all
May 2010 vs 2011:  41% less <---cooling started late in the month

Just awesome!  I'm thrilled...it's showing all that work is cashing in.

I also decided to compare my energy usage between this home (built 1986, 2700 sf) versus our old townhome (built 2005, 1300 sf).  Note for the "old" townhome I had to convert natural gas usage to electricity equivalent because both hot water heater and cooking used natural gas.  It's an easy conversion...if you want to know...ask.    OK here's the total energy consumption between the two places:

Feb 2011 vs Feb 2009: 26% less
Mar 2011 vs Mar 2009: 39% less
Apr 2011 vs Apr 2009:  22% less
May 2011 vs May 2009:  26% less

How awesome is that?  Our older, larger home is more energy efficiency than the newer, smaller, townhome.  Frickin' awesome.  I'm excited to see what the next bill shows...until July!!!