UPDATE: Water Heater Woes Continued...

Temperature in the Crawl Space from last night: next to the Geospring and the crawl space door (Bottom Value=56.1F)

Continuing on from my current discussion, so I'm been watching the Geospring to see if Friday's fix of the control board has worked.  Well, my skepticism has been right.  This AM, I checked the TED5000 and it appears the Geospring is still not operating correctly.  And I know its got nothing to do with the temperature in the crawl space because that's fine...and this AM it was  a nice 47F outside while the crawl space was at least 56F.  The graphs below show the AM routine with showers and such.  You can easily see the electric elements on the water heater turning on (a healthy ~5kW) 3 times over this morning for showers.  The 3rd time is when my wife cleaned the dishes in the sink.

Morning Energy Consumption.  The first big jump and 10-min plateau is the water heater running for my wife's shower.  The second is my my shower (with the 'thorn' on top for my wife's  hair dryer).  The third...well, I'm not sure.  Laundry?

Below is a closeup of the 3rd jump.  What I find a little odd is the "noise" on the graph (the jumping up/down).  That's kind of unusual.  Just look at the data before and notice that the data is very smooth.  And after is a little "rough" also.  Thinking about this...that's got to be the clothes washer.  I'm guessing it must be that little bit of "juice" to keep the drum moving.  Neat, huh?

Closeup of the 3rd turn on of the water heater electric elements.  

Since I can't zoom or change the scale on these graphs, I downloaded the raw data from TED and opened it up in Excel to graph.  The results are below so you can easily see the "noise" from the clothes washer.

Excel Plot of the clothes washer "Noise"  Lots of ups and downs.  

Anyhow, regardless of what the clothes washer is doing, I'm still a little peeved about my water heater still not operating correctly.  It should be running the heat pump exclusively.

Reminder of the weather station next to the water heater with the water heater set to "Heat Pump Only"

Well, I guess I'll get the *joy* of calling GE again and hopefully this time I won't get the rude person who's trying to tell me I'm wrong and I don't understand how the water heater works...along with the threat that I'll have to pay for the service "when they find there's nothing wrong".   If I'm wrong, I'll gladly blog about it and apologize.  Until that happens...which it hasn't to date...

Water Heater Woes Continues...

OK...so recall a little while ago (cue the Scooby-Doo music and squiggly lines), I was having some issues with my GE Geospring Heat Pump Water Heater.  Well on Friday last week, the back-ordered control board finally arrive and week later (yesterday), the GE repair guys showed up and installed it.  As a fun note, the water heater was showing the dreaded "FC/F14" (failed compressor) error when I opened up the crawl space before the guys arrived.

Well, go figure, today I'm getting ready to feed the dog while my wife was showering and I noticed on the energy monitor that the energy usage was sky-high.  Well, what the heck!  I checked and the downstairs heat was on...OK...that's about 2.5 kW (Stage 2).  The upstairs heat was not on.  And then while looking around I heard her hair dryer come on...that's about 1.5kW.  So I checked TED and this is what I saw the following:

Morning Power Usage.  The ~2.5kW is the heat.  The final blip is a hair dryer.  The big jump is the water heater.

 Huh...there' a huge roughly 5kW jump...so the electric element is on the water heater again!  WTH?!?  Didn't those guys fix that yesterday?!?

Well, at this point I can't do any more investigation because I needed to cook breakfast for the family. In case you're wondering, it was waffles.  And yes, they were awesome.

So after cooking and cleaning up I checked on the water heater.  While doing dishes, I did run over to the corner of the house and listen and I could hear the heat pump working.  Well that's good!

After I had finished cleaning, everything I checked the power monitor and *$%&$%, the electric heating element was on again!  Well, now I was free to check on everything.  Below is my series of pictures where I made sure everything was off.  There was no heat on, upstairs or downstairs.  The dryer wasn't running.  We weren't cooking or baking.  And nothing else was running (fridge, freezer, kegerator).  I also checked the temperature in the crawl space...and it was a healthy 59F.

TED5000 showing my energy usage

Temperatures.  Upper is Indoor.  Lower is Crawl Space.  Ignore the time, I've never set it.

Downstairs heat is not running.

Upstairs heat is not running either

Geospring showing it in Heat Pump Only Mode.

While down in the crawl space checking the water heater and taking the above picture you could hear the a click which I'm guessing was the electric elements turning off.  I verified it with the below pictures...

Yup, all heating (air and water) is off. 

Below is the TED screenshot.  You can see the event described earlier (~6:30am) with the hair dryer peak.  And then there's cooking breakfast followed by doing the dishes.  Then everything turns off while we eat followed by the final water heater peak when I was doing this investigation.

TED5000 energy monitor

So I'm going to try an experiment.  I relocated my weather monitor right next to the Geospring.  Not to say it was much further away...maybe 10-15-ft, but now it's only about 1-ft away.  And it is also right next to the crawl space door.  This should be the coldest it should ever read, if for some reason, air is getting through the insulated and weatherstripped door.  It happens, so I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt although one would think that if it were significant enough, I'd see huge fluctuation in the temperature in my entire crawl space...which I do not see.

Geospring with the weather (temp/humidity) monitor now located beside the water heater.  The door is about 3-ft away.

Looking at the monitor now, it is showing a lower temperature...53F instead of 59F.  Then again, I did just have the crawl space door open while I went inside to grab the weather station, then move it over and position it (it didn't want to stand up so I had to put it on its side), and then take the picture.  And even with that, it's still nearly 8F higher than the minimum temp.  So I'm overly surprised that the temperature it lower. 

Either way, I'm going leave this here for a while to see if the temperature drops to below the 45F threshold where it overrides the heat pump and goes to electric.  I *highly* doubt this is the case, but I can at least rule it out.  I'll keep y'all posted.  Otherwise, I guess I'll have to call GE repair again to get them over to figure out why this thing keeps running the electric heat. 

Nov/Dec Duke Energy Bill

I've been slacking a bit on posting my energy usage as I'm hoping to use Groovestream to upload my stuff automatically.  Still working on it so stay tuned.

My Nov and December bill results are posted below.  November (Oct 1 to Nov 1) wasn't too bad, but December (Nov 1 to Dec 1)...wow...I blew that out of the water using 50% more than last year.

November 2014 Daily Energy Consumption.  Note around the 16th how my energy usage significantly increases.

November Bill (Oct 2 to Nov 2) 2013
Total Consumption = 651 kWh
Days = 31
Average Daily Consumption = 21.0 kWh/day
Bill = $64.02

November Bill (Oct 1 to Nov 1) 2014
Total Consumption = 510 kWh
Days = 31
Average Daily Consumption = 16.45 kWh/day   (21.66% reduction vs 2013)
Bill = $63.14

December Bill (Oct 28 to Dec 1) 2013
Total Consumption = 906 kWh
Days = 34
Average Daily Consumption = 26.65 kWh/day
Bill = $96.66

December Bill (Nov 1 to Dec 1) 2014
Total Consumption = 1,202 kWh
Days = 30
Average Daily Consumption = 40.07 kWh/day   (50.4% increase vs 2013)
Bill = $126.46

I wanted to know what I used so much energy in 2014 vs 2013.  Yeah, I did host Thanksgiving this year and had family over, but that really couldn't be THAT much over 2013 given that it was just a week.  

For Comparison:  November 2013 Energy Consumption

Digging in, I see that I ran my HVAC system longer (see figures below)...which accounts for about 70 hrs longer in November (@2.25 kW) or 158 kWh/mo.  That's a good chunk.  Beyond that there's my my issues with the water heater, but that's tough to quantify....maybe 60-80 kWh/mo?  The 2x extra showers with family in the house could boost that a little bit...but that can't be more than 10-20 kWh/mo I would think.

Downstairs HVAC Usage from Ecobee (Weather Adjusted)

Upstairs HVAC Usage from Ecobee (Weather Adjusted)

You can easily see my energy usage spike after Nov 16th (Note:  I was away at a Conference!).  The low on Nov 25-26th is because the circuit breaker which the TED5000 was attached to busted (thank you Squirrels!), so I had to replace it and I lost a big chunk of data.

One thing is that my wife has been on a crazy clothes cleaning binge as she's prepping all the old kids clothes for the upcoming consignment sale.  So an extra 6 kWh/week (24 kWh/mo)?  That could put me in the neighborhood for similar energy usage.

Duke Energy Home Energy Report 2014

In Decenber, my home used 25% less energy than an "Efficient" Home according to Duke Energy.  Damn right!

So yesterday I got a fancy document in the mail from Duke Energy that was my "home energy report" for the year.  I had to share since it indicated that my home is "among the most efficient in your areas and is the envy of your neighbors".  Well, duh...yeah!  As it shows in the pic above for December 2014 alone, my house was 25% more efficient than Duke's "Efficient Home". 

My Energy Usage over the last year.  I'm the yellow line way below the "average" home (blue) and the "efficient" home (green)

They also included a nice graph of my energy usage over the year compared to an "average" home and an "efficient home".  My house is WAYYY below the average home (50-60% less?) and is well below the "efficient home" (25-40% less?).  Maybe Duke needs to revise their definition of an "efficient home"! 

Water Heater Woes

Go figure, as soon as it gets cold, then issues arise.  Recall that i have one of those fancy GE Geospring water heaters that use a low energy heat pump to heat my hot water.  To date, it's worked nearly flawlessly with the only hiccup being a Thanksgiving when I had so much family in the house, that my water heater couldn't keep up with demand in the "heat pump only" mode that I have my unit set on.  So I just changed the mode to be "hybrid" to allow the electric elements to kick-on and produce the extra hot water necessary for ~6 showers in the morning.  

My GE Geospring water heater in my crawl space

Well, all was great until just after Thanksgiving when I noticed I had a lot of energy usage.  Trying to troubleshoot led me down to the crawl space where I found a "FC" error code on the GeoSpring.  Thanks to the "Google", I found this this meant "Failed Compressor" and (apparently) it's not an unusual occurance via comments and blogs.  I went ahead and called GE customer service and scheduled an appointment for after the Holidays (I was traveling).  They mailed the parts to me ahead of time which included a bunch of new parts.  

On Monday, the guys arrived and they plugged in their laptop (when can I get one of those appliance communication modules?!?) and ran a test to verify that "Yup, the compressor is broken".  So they ripped out the old one and put in the new one while leaving me to scramble for PVC parts to reattached the drain piping.

Old Evaporator.  There's a surprising amount of rust here for something that isn't even 2 years old!

Pic i used to go to Lowe's where I picked up a union and a nipple to reattached the drain piping

So after they put everything back together, it appeared that everything was working.  The fan was running which indicated that the compressor was running producing hot water. 

Well, funny thing, the next day I was getting ready to feed the dog when I glanced over at the energy monitor and saw it using 6 kW.  Wow...that's a lot!  So I searched around the house.  Drying not running; upstairs heat off; downstairs heat off; Oven off...huh.  My wife was making some stuff in the toaster oven, but that's rinky-dink...only 1.5kW.  So I set off to the crawl space to check on the water heater.  Suspicious, I flipped the breaker and guess what?  The electric demand instantly dropped...bullseye!   Below is a screenshot of the power usage via the TED5000 and my phone.

Real-Time Energy Usage showing the water heater on...then off at the sudden drop.  And the pick-up when I flipped the breaker back on.

Once I verified, I flipped the breaker again and you can see the water heater heat pump turn on as it goes through its start-up cycle.  Huh...so why was the electric running when I had the unit set to "heat pump only"?  No idea.  So I just assumed it was a minor blip...I made sure the temp was set right and it was still on "heat pump only", then closed up the crawl space and went on my merry way.

Well, the next morning, my wife wakes me up to say, "there's no hot water".  WTH?!?  So at 5:30am I trudged down to the crawl space again.  No error codes present.  So I changed the mode to "hybrid" to enable the electric heat.  As soon as I hit enter, you can immediately hear the electric units turn on and hum.  And the energy monitor verified that the electric heating was on with an instant 4.5 kW bump in usage.  This got me annoyed...why was the heat pump not turning on???  I closed up the crawl space and checked the temperature and even after the crawl space door was open when I was checking the water heater, the temperature still registered 63F..no where near the 45F limit.  

So I broke down and called GE again to get my unit serviced.  After the troubleshooting guy argued with me about the crawl space temperature (I monitor it...trust me, I know it stays between 60-65 all year round...coldest ever was 58F), I got an appointment with a stern warning that if they don't find anything wrong with the unit, they'll charge me.  Since then I got a call from one of the service guys who I talked through what I saw (very nice gentlemen) and they suspect it's the control board.  So that's been ordered...and actually its on back-order...with a tentative appointment to replace it on the 20th.  I'm really hoping that'll fix it. Luckily, this is all no-cost to me since it's well within its 10-year warranty.  

Today's energy usage on TED.  Maybe that step around 5-6am is for the water heater?  After 7am is the dryer.  At ~8pm (19:00) the previous day you can see the water heater come on for the kiddo bath-time usage

This AM, I did try to check to see if the electric water heating was on, but I can't see it on the graphing which is odd  (maybe it is hidden in there around that 4.5-5KW area before 7am?).  Granted I didn't get the opportunity to go to the crawl space and check.  There was plenty of hot water this AM which was nice given that it was a frosty 11F outside (20F colder than yesterday).  

Anyway, we'll see if and how this gets resolved. It's a little annoying that this is happening to a fairly new unit.   

BMW i3 Rex Extended Test Drive

BMW i3 ReX Sitting in my garage

So I've been eying the BMW i3 for some time now.  While it's pricey (starting price ~$41-$45k, avg price ~$50k), this car is a game changer.  The addition of the Range Extending engine (Rex) effectively brings the range of this car from ~80 miles to 160 miles using a tiny engine and a 1.9 gallon tank.  That's a pretty good safety net for anyone with range anxiety.  And the engine does not drive the car.  It's sole purpose is to recharge the battery.  Pretty cool stuff, right?   Oh, and its the most efficient car on the road (by EPA MPGe standards).  Sounds right up my alley, right?  Given that I live in a City and most of my driving is city-esq driving, an electric car for me is almost a no-brainer.  If I travel long distances, I can use my wifes car.  Or you can use BMW's exclusive (for i3 owners) flexible mobility car rental where you can use borrow a car for long trips.

Well, when they i3 first came out, they had a special event at my local BMW dealership (Hendrick BMW) where I signed up, brought my dad with me, and we test drove the car.  I did a second test drive about a month ago over Thanksgiving with my dad and brother.  Those 2 test drives were fun and it showed me that there was ample room in the back seat for any tall people and even with the "suicide doors", It was fairly easy to get in and out of and the trunk was small (not surprising there)  Oh yeah, and its fun to drive.  But...I still wasn't sure if it was the car for me.  Why?  Because of the kiddos.  To be clear...I've got 16 month twins.  And for all you parents out there, you know the ability to (a) put a car seat in a car; (b) the ability to get kids stuff in the car and (c) the ability to get kids in and out of the car are 3 of the most important car buying issues. 

View of the kiddos getting strapped into their car seats in the i3

So I really needed to test this car in "Real life".  Not a test drive where I got to go 5 miles around a couple streets.  I needed to really drive this car as if it was mine.  Located in my garage. So I could see if this car would fit in the lives of my 'modern family'.

So when BMW said they were offering 'extended test drives' (aka take the car home for the weekend) I was thrilled.  At first, it wasn't offered in my area.  But when I queried during my 2nd test drive, it was available so I signed up.  The folks at Hendrick BMW are great.  Nice folks and professionals.  I was given a BMW i3 Rex "Mega World" with the Tech and Driving Assist Package in Ionic Silver.  MSRP of ~$50.25k (Lease of ~$400/month).  I picked it up Friday afternoon (after a meeting).  I drove it to work for the day before taking it home. 

The 240v charging station is pretty much a MUST.  It takes 20hrs to charge from empty on 110v.  Or 3 hrs with the 240v. 

So let's talk about my thoughts.  Before I begin, let's note that this review is just based on the issues I wanted to look at via the kiddos.  If you want to read about range, styling, etc.  Go to one of the dozen-plus automotive websites and check those out. 

OK...so when I took the car home, they first thing I wanted to check out where the 'suicide doors'.  These concerned me because I wasn't sure how they would work in the garage.  Would the doors hit the wall making it impossible to get anyone out of the back?  This would be a similar situation in a parking lot.  If you can't get the kids out of the back without trickery, then this is a no-go.  So...I parked the car in the garage and checked it out.  First thing I did was check it out without any modifications.  What I mean by that...I didn't move anything already there.  You'll see from the pic below the door was able to open fine with my bike and bike carrier still on the wall.  Was it easy?  No.  However, those things are a pain even with my Prius.  So no foul there.  And this spring I'm building a storage area under my new deck...where the bikes and such will be relocated. 

i3 with the doors open in my garage

 OK...so that worked. I will say that there was zero door issues after I moved everything.  Oh, it'll be so nice when I get that storage project done. 

View after I removed the bike and carrier.  Lots more room.

Doors opening in a parking lot next to another car.  No problems getting in and out.  The stroller was trickier, but I was still able to do it.

A view of the front door as it opened against my bike.  It does that with my car too.

My sons car seat in the Mazda 5

So the next thing we needed to check was how well we could get the kids in the car seats.  Below is a pic of the the room I have with our Mazda 5.  Not a fair comparison, I know...a 'mini' minivan vs the i3.  But it's just for reference.  Note how much space there is above the car seat.  And this seat moves forward and back so you can fit things in as needed.

So here's the same car seat in the i3. With the front seat down, it was easy to get the car seat into place.  No issues, plenty of room...at least for this 5'6" 140lbs guy.   Once the car seat was installed and I put the drivers seat into position, the car seat was touching.  Uh oh...while this is fine for a person of my stature, anyone taller would be uncomfortable.  I did have my dad (6'2") get in and he can technically fit, albeit not comfortable.  He has the same issue with the car seats installed in his BMW 3-series Diesel wagon. 

Car seat in the i3 with the front seat folded up

Car seat with the front seat in driving position

My daughters infant car seat.  Hitting the passenger front seat.

Next, I wanted to see if I could fit the double-stroller in.  I wasn't going for the super-big jogging stroller...just the 'umbrella' version.  I can barely fit the jogging stroller in the Prius so I knew getting it in here would be impossible.  I already knew putting the stroller in the cargo area was a no-go.  Way too small.  But what about in the foot-area of the backseat?  Well, that worked, but it did involve a lot of shoving.  To get it in, I had to fold the drivers seat up, put in the stroller, and then reposition the seat.  It did fit as the pics below show.  But the wheels were marking up the seat.

Double Umbrella Stroller in the i3

Stroller wheels right up on the seat...marking it up

Plenty of legroom for me.

Next up...can you get the kids in?  Short answer, yes.  Easily:  no.   So...my kiddos right now are small for their age.  My son is in the 1-3 percentile.  My daughter is on her own curve...technically 0.1 percentile.  At 16 months and about 16 lbs, she's still in her infant car seat.  And most infants at 6 months weigh as much as her.  My son is about 20 lbs which means he could still be in his infant car seat too (max ~25 lbs) but he's in a convertible car seat. 

My wife getting my daughter into the car seat.

So, getting the kids into the car seats specifically with the odd doors.  No problem, especially once I got the stuff out of the way in the garage.  Asking my wife how it was getting my daughter in, it was not a problem with the doors and in one respect, a little easier without the middle door pillar. 

View of my wife getting the kids in the car

However, there was one glaring issue.  In order to get the kids in their seats, you almost literally had to hold them out horizontal to get them between the door opening and the car seat before you could place them in.  I couldn't hold a kid and take a pic at the same time (no Google glasses or Go-Pro), so I had to use a surrogate.  Enter blue bunny.  As you'll see below, blue bunny is about the same size as my son.  So from the pics below you can see that its a tight fit.

My son with blue bunny.

A tight fit trying to get blue bunny into the car

Another view with blue bunny

 
Now, if your kid is calm you can do this easy.  Ok, got that image?  Now..clear your mind and  imagine if the kid is having a temper tantrum.  You're never getting that kid into the car seat without bumps and scratches.  Ugh.  How about when they get bigger?  Or maybe you have a 50-percentile kid?  Or for that matter at 100-percentile kid?  Getting the kid in is only going to get harder as they get bigger (taller and heavier).  Now, if you only have 1 kid and could install the car seat in the center area (I'm not sure if you can since there's no official center seat), then maybe this issue goes away.  I'm not sure...if anyone wants to try this out, go for it.  I have 2 kids, so I'm doing what's important to me.

Now, in about 1.5-2 years the car seats will be FWD facing.  In that case, getting the kids in and out should be downright EASY.  Especially with these doors as there will be a ton of room.  The problem here...is that it's 1.5-2 years away for me.  And that's the length of a car lease.  And by 2017, the Tesla Model 3 will be out.  So while I really like this car, it's not going to work for me.  If you have 1 kid and its determined that you can put the car seat in the middle-back, then this car could work for you.  If you can't well...those folks would be in a similar situation as me, unless you want to crawl over the back-seat from the opposite side to get your kid in and out. 

So BMW and other electric car makers...can you make a car that can handle this?  And make it reasonably affordable?   If so, I'd probably be first in line to get your car. Yes a Tesla would probably work for me, but I can't afford $80k.  Heck, even $50k is stretching the budget, although I'd most likely lease the car.  Overall, this BMW is soooo close to meeting all that I'd need. 

Lots of catching up to do

Wow...has my last post really been since late June?  That just tells you how much time flies when you have kids.  And work.  And life.  Yada Yada Yada...

Well, let me me catch you up on what's been going down.  Overall, I haven't done much of anything on the home energy efficiency front.  I've just let the solar panels and my HVAC thriftiness take that over.  We did tear down and install a new deck and screened in porch.  When doing that I removed an old door in my living room and replaced it with a window.  When I replaced that door with the window, I made sure I caulked and foamed it up very well around the new frame.  I insulated with some extra extruded polystyrene panels effectively putting in R-20.  And the window is low-e too.  I'm hoping that may fix an issue over there where it's always felt cool in the winter.  Only time will tell.

Pic of the Door-to-window replacement in progress.  Pic shows the frame and window installed, the air gap foamed, awaiting insulation.  Of course, kid toys are in the pic.

Below are the results of the last couple months....

June 1 - July 1, 2014
Power Consumed = 613 kWh (2013 = 462 kWh)
Solar Produced = 203 kWh; Tigo broken, TED estimate)
Billing Days = 30
Average Daily Power Consumption = 20.43 kWh/day (vs. 16.50 kWh or 23.8% increase in usage)
Bill= $75.02 (vs $54.62 in 2013)

July 1 - August 1, 2014
Power Consumed = 600 kWh (2013 = 631 kWh)
Solar Produced = 188 kWh
Billing Days = 31
Average Daily Power Consumption = 19.35 kWh/day (vs. 20.35 kWh or 4.9% decrease in usage)
Bill= $73.82 (vs. $70.78 in 2013)

August 1 - September 1, 2014
Power Consumed = 525 kWh (2013 = 771 kWh)
Solar Produced = 198 kWh
Billing Days = 31
Average Daily Power Consumption = 16.94 kWh/day (vs. 23.36 kWh or 27.5% decrease in usage)
Bill=$66.16 vs $84.14 in 2013)

Overall for those 3 months, my usage decreased by about 6.7% versus 2013.  This month I'm trending to be very close to the same as 2013.  Maybe some day when the kids are older I'll be able to set the thermostat back to my old settings.  Unless my wife has something to say about that...

May Energy Consumption Results

The May energy results are in.  They are posted below.  This week I should get my new TIGO gateway installed so once that is complete, I'll start posting better solar production numbers.  Also, my HVAC guys (Panther HVAC) is going to upgrade my upstairs split unit from the Envision series to a 5-series with a desuperheater.  Thus, I'll have the ability to generate hot water regardless of which system is running. Given that my upstairs split system runs 2:1 over the downstairs this should significantly increase the amount of hot water generated. 

May 2013 Duke Energy Bill (May 3 - June 4)
Energy Consumption = 431 kWh
Billing Days = 33
Average Daily Energy Consumption = 13.06 kWh/day
Bill = $50.93

May 2014 Duke Energy Bill (May 1 - June 1)
Energy Consumption = 431 kWh  (483 kWh used minus 118 kWh sent back to grid)
Solar Energy Produced = 233 kWh (TED5000 Estimate)
Billing Days = 31
Average Daily Energy Consumption = 11.77 kWh/day  (9.85% reduction in energy consumption)
Bill = $49.42

Overall, those are some good numbers.  I doubt I'll look positive for next month. The heat we've had lately has certainly increased our AC usage.  It's pretty much been around 90s for the past 2 weeks straight.  Ugh.  Shoot, last month (May) we didn't even use the AC while last month we ran the upstairs system nearly 80hrs which is equivalent to what we typiclly see in June.  Regardless, there's always 'ups and downs' in weather. 

Have a Happy Independence Day! 

Tigo Gateway 'fried', Desuperheater for upstairs, heat pump dryer

My Tigo Control Panel

So the guys from Renu Energy (formerly GreenSpring Energy) came by to check out why my Tigo is broken again.  After after 3 hours of work and constantly going from the roof to the attic to my bonus room (where the Tigo control panel is located), they finally gave up.  Essentially they think the Gateway (located on the roof) is 'fried'.  Tigo is going to send a new gateway to me which they'll exchange for my current one so they can try to diagnose what went wrong.  I'll hopefully get the new unit in 1-2 weeks and Tigo will be up and running.  Now, when I say fried...it just means that Tigo isn't transferring the data.  I'm still getting solar power generation, so that's good.  And I think I'm still getting the benefit of of the Tigo, just not the data.  So stay tuned for more info.

OK...next up, desuperheaters.  One thing that's always annoyed me was that my geothermal install only had 1 desuperheater located on my downstairs unit.  And over the summer and swing seasons I always felt that the upstairs unit ran far longer than the downstairs unit for A/C.  Recall...the longer the runtime for A/C, the more hot water is generated from the desuperheater.  Well, i just confirmed this using the Ecobees.  Overall, the upstairs unit runs 2.2x more than the downstairs units when the A/C is running.  Thus, I'm missing out on ~70% of the potential hot water generation.  Bah!  So I'm looking into getting a desuperheater for my upstairs unit.  I've contacted my HVAC guys (Panther HVAC) to see what they recommend as I'm unused if I'd be looking at a WaterFurnace related unit or if I should go with an aftermarket unit (such as the Turbotec Enviro-Pak).  Stay tuned for more info once I get a reply back from Turbotec on their price along with a reply from my HVAC folks.

BTW...for folks that have a normal heat pump or A/C, you can use the Turbotec system to generate hot water too. You don't need a geotrhermal system to do it.  It's just useful to hopefully have your airhandler and your water heater near to each other.

One final thing...I just saw that LG has released the first heat pump dryer in the US.  Hooray!  It's 50-60% more efficient at drying than a conventional dryer.  As of now, my dryer is by far the largest energy consumer in my house.  The only thing bigger is my emergency heat for the geothermal system and that should never run...except well for emergencies, which hasn't happened.  Unfortunately, it's priced at $1,600 (MSRP) so hopefully prices will drop soon.  Not to mention, I don't need a new washer/dryer as I highly doubt there's any ROI unless I have to replace my unit anyway.

Feb/March/April Energy Bill. And Tigo broken again...

Hi Folks-

Yes, I've been a bad slacker. The kiddos are crawling now which means they are all over the place.  There's essentially really no such thing as free time anymore.  If you were in the Southeast this year, you'll know that its been pretty dang odd outside.  In April there were times where I needed heat for a couple of days...then I needed A/C for a couple days, and for the rest, I didn't need anything.  At least recently (May) I haven't needed any heat.  I'm trying like hell not to run the A/C and instead opening the windows.  But the humidity keeps creeping up which means eventually I have to give in.  At a minimum, I'm only running the upstairs system.  The downstairs is staying nice and cool.

Anyhow...without further ado...below are the numbers for February, March and April.

February 2013 (Feb 4 - Mar 4)
Energy Consumption:  901 kWh
Number of Billing days:  28
Average daily Consumption:  32.18 kWh/day
Degree Days:  620
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.45 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $91.68

February 2014 (Feb 1 - Mar 1)
Energy Consumption:  919 kWh (estimated)
Solar Generated to Grid:  135 kWh (estimated from TED5000)
Net Energy Consumption:  784 kWh
Number of Billing days:  28
Average daily Consumption:  28.00 kWh/day (13% reduction)
Degree Days: 543
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.44 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $87.91 ($11.75 monthly savings)

****

March 2013 (March 4 - April 2)
Energy Consumption:  737 kWh
Number of Billing days:  29
Average daily Consumption:  25.41 kWh/day
Degree Days:  444
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.60 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $77.46

March 2014 (March 1 - April 1)
Energy Consumption:  1,112 kWh (estimated)
Solar Generated to Grid:  183 kWh (high estimate from TED5000)
Net Energy Consumption:  929 kWh
Number of Billing days:  31
Average daily Consumption:  29.97 kWh/day (17.9% increase in usage)
Degree Days: 456
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.60 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $101.19 ($19.67 increase in cost)  *Rate increase vs 2013

****

April 2013 (April 2 - May 3)
Energy Consumption:  359 kWh
Number of Billing days:  30
Average daily Consumption:  11.97 kWh/day
Degree Days:  161
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.49 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $44.69

April 2014 (April 1 - May 1)
Energy Consumption:  493 kWh
Solar Generated to Grid:  109 kWh
Net Energy Consumption:  385 kWh
Number of Billing days:  30
Average daily Consumption:  12.83 kWh/day (7.24% increase in usage)
Degree Days: 183
Average Daily Usage/Degree Day:  1.97 kwh/DD
Billing Amount:  $51.24 ($11.53 increase in cost)  *Rate increase vs 2013

While February I was able to reduce costs, I got bit in the butt for March and April.  What surprised me was how the HDDs were the same as last year.  It sure didn't feel like it.  In April, I'm in my lowest energy usage period (swing month).  So you can clearly see the 'kid penalty' (those extra loads of laundry, extra dishes, bath-time, etc).  But it's not like it's THAT bad.  I will say that in March, we did get a new freezer for the garage.  It's 3x the size of the old one, but only uses about 50% more energy than the previous.  So this adds an additional 1 kWh/day to my bill roughly.

How are the solar panels doing?  Well so far we're about 124 kWh lower than projected.  One thing that is really annoying is that Tigo is broken again.  I contacted Greenspring already, but I need to follow-up with them so they can come out.  I'm betting its that dang connection coming loose in the attic again.  That's a bad place to have wires spliced together because it has such an extra temperature range (110F --> Teens).  Thus, copper wiring is going to expand/shrink a lot.  

	PVWatts	SolarEye	Expected	Actual
	Generation	DeRate	Generation	Generation
Month	kWh/mo	%	kWh/mo	kWh/mo	Notes
1	223	52%	116.0	135	TED5000 estimate.  Tigo broken
2	221	72%	159.1	135	TED5000 estimate.  Tigo broken
3	282	77%	217.1	183	TED5000 estimate.  Tigo broken
4	299	83%	248.2	209	TED5000 estimate.  Tigo broken
5	293	83%	243.2
6	277	82%	227.1
7	273	82%	223.9
8	278	82%	228.0
9	254	82%	208.3
10	270	75%	202.5
11	220	66%	145.2	96.21	Energized Nov 7th.  Fully Operational Nov 11th.
12	205	47%	96.4	99.37
Total	3095	74.8%	2315
			Expected	Actual	Diff
		To Date:	981.9	857.58	124.4

 

FeBRRRuary Bill...

Hi all.  Wow..I gotta say sometimes is takes FOREVER for Duke Energy to get the dang bill out.  For the longest time I've known how much I owe...but they had not produced a bill to show consumption.

Overall between Jan and Feb it was COLD.  A lot colder than I can remember. You'll see below that the HDDs were 1.5x what was last year and 2012.  Yikes!  And the bill reflects it too.  Also note that Duke Energy raise their rates late last year\ too.

Regardless...below are the results:

January 3rd - February 4th, 2013 Bill
Total consumption:  1,050 kWh
Days in billing cycle = 32
Average Daily Consumption = 32.81 kWh/day
Degree days = 606
Consumption per HDD = 1.73 kWh/HDD
Bill = $104.62

January 1st - February 1st, 2014 Bill
Total consumption:  1,438 kWh
Total Solar Generated:  135 kWh (TED5000)
Total Solar back to grid:  29 kWh
Net Consumption:  1,409 kWh
Days in billing cycle = 31
Average Daily Consumption = 45.45 kWh/day (38.52% increase)
Degree days = 906 (149% increase)
Consumption per HDD = 1.56 kWh/HDD (10.24% decrease)
Bill = $145.16

So, while overall we had a huge increase in average daily energy consumption (~39%) compared to last year, factoring in the significantly bitter cold temperatures shows we had an overall 10% reduction in energy usage.

	PVWatts	SolarEye	Expected	Actual
	Generation	DeRate	Generation	Generation
Month	kWh/mo	%	kWh/mo	kWh/mo	Notes
1	223	52%	116.0	135	TED5000 estimate
2	221	72%	159.1	135	TED5000 estimate
3	282	77%	217.1
4	299	83%	248.2
5	293	83%	243.2
6	277	82%	227.1
7	273	82%	223.9
8	278	82%	228.0
9	254	82%	208.3
10	270	75%	202.5
11	220	66%	145.2	96.21	Energized Nov 7.  Fully Online Nov 11.
12	205	47%	96.4	99.37
Total	3095	74.8%	2315

Comparing the solar generation to what was expected shows actual generation at 135 kWh while the estimated generation was listed as 116 kWh.  So that's good.  However, in February it looks like I produced less power than what was predicted.  For a combo of Jan&Feb, I produced 270 kWh while it predicted 275 kWh.  A 1.9% error?  I'm OK with that...

FYI, I got January's data from my TED5000 as my Tigo system is not generating data.  The Tigo unit says "No Gateway Detected!".  The contractor will check out the gateway today to figure out what is going on.  Luckily, its not inhibiting me from producing power.

BTW...Tigo makes you PAY to view your own generated data after an apparent "honeymoon" period.   This is very annoying as the Tigo website is very sly and not straightforward that a normal homeowner would have to pay.  It reads as if only large scale systems need to pay since they would need the advanced features.  It's not expensive ($5/year), but it pissed me off regardless.  Also the contractor did not tell me of this either which is doubly annoying.

January Bill

Hi All...long time no blog, eh?  Yeah, the kiddos are keeping me busy and there's a bunch of things I'd like to blog about, but I just haven't gotten around to it.  Regardless, I'm back now with the latest energy results.  Shall we begin?

January 2013 Duke Energy Bill

Energy Consumed = 940 kWh

Billing Days = 31

Average Daily Consumption = 30.32 kWh/day

Heating Degree Days = 538

Energy per HDD = 1.75 kWh/HDD

Bill = $95.84

January 2014 Duke Energy Bill (Dec 1 - Jan 1)

Energy Consumed = 1,020 kWh

Solar Energy Back to the Grid = 33 kWh (99.4Next  kWh total generated)

Net Energy Usage = 987 kWh

Billing Days = 31

Average Daily Consumption = 31.84 kWh/day (5% increase in usage)

Heating Degree Days = 577

Energy per HDD = 1.71 kWh/HDD (2.3% reduction in usage)

Bill = $103.55 ($0.13 savings vs 2012 due to the higher rate)

Overall, I used about 5% more energy than 2013.  However, factoring in the colder weather, I was roughly the same with 2.3% reduction.  I'll take that.  I'm even OK with the 5% increase at face value.  Overall, I'd say sticking within 5% error is pretty darn good with the introduction of the twins to the family.  

Next month is ugly, as TED5000 is reporting that I'm averaging 44.7 kWh/day.  I'm sitting at 923 kWh used to date which extrapolates to ~1390 kWh/month.  Yikes!  Mind you much of that is due to the bitter cold we've been experiencing.  In 2013 we had 606 HDD.  We're CURRENTLY at 558 HDDs with 10 more days to go (including today).  And we're averaging 23 HDD/day (already removing the 4 coldest days).  That'll put this month at 788 HDDs!  That would explain the significant increase in usage (HVAC related).  And 1390/788 = 1.76 kWh/HDD which is generally on par with what I've been reporting.   

Solar Panel Update - How close to expected?

Happy New Year everyone!  Well, now that the new year is upon us and I finally have a full month of data collection, I can look at how well my solar installation has performed compared to what was expected.  Be mindful that this really only 1 month of data.  The true test will be once we get a full year of data.  But I'm gonna show y'all anyway.


First let's get some of the background, shall we?  Below is a pic of what PV Watts estimated my house should get.  This is the same information that my Solar Contractor, Greenspring Energy, gave to me.

PV Watts Information

 The PVWatts information has a big ole' asterisk with it though.  This assumes full, unimpeded access to the sunlight.  Well, my house isn't in the middle of a field, so these numbers are not realistic.  That's where the SunEye report comes in as shown in the pictures below.

Monthly SolarEye Information

As you'll notice, due to shading, I should expect at most, 75% of the unimpeded values with February- October getting the best results (72-83%) and November-January getting significantly lower (47-66%).  December is the worst month with only 47%.

Wait...never seen one of these things?  Well, essentially what they do is take this fisheye camera thingy (yes, "thingy" is a technical term) and put it on multiple points on your roof where it takes a picture and overlays how the sun will track across it.  See the picture below:

SunEye Report for One of my Locations.

In my case they took 3 pictures at the 3 points of the triangle of my southern facing roof.  In the picture above (the peak of the triangle, best location) you can see how the tops of the trees (green) partially inhibit the sunshine from reaching my solar panels.  The evening trees (picture right) are in my backyard and is about a 50/50 mix of trees in my yard and my neighbors yard.  So if I wanted to increase my energy generation, I'd need to get myself a chainsaw.  However, I don't want to do that because those same trees shade my house and keep the temperature down.  I'll take that benefit instead.  If there was one thing I'd do would be to trim some of the those top trees that are significantly reducing Nov/Dec/Jan.  That could be really only 3-4 branches.  In one instance I know there's a tree that's dead on the top (shown in the pic above, the green splotch where the 10am line and Nov line meet) that probably needs to be trimmed or come down soon anyway.

OK...enough of that tangent...so getting back to the discussion, now let's look at my generation (from the Tigo website):

Tigo Energy Recordings

Overall I've produced just shy of 100 kWh/month for November and December.  And don't forget that I'm missing about 6-10 days of data as the system was energized on November 7th and wasn't fully operational until November 11th.  So let's take this data and compare it what was expected:

Comparison of Expected vs Actual Solar Power Generation

As we see for December, I was just over what was expected for the month which is good! If we were to extrapolate November we'd be a little under (say 130 kWh vs 145 kWh), but it's at least in the neighborhood. I'd say "so far so good".  I think what's going to be most interesting is when we get into this Spring.

I'll try to remember to post this similar information for each month in addition to my Duke Energy information.  If I can, I'll try to combine the two when I can.

Any thoughts out there?