October power use game!

Forsyth MO. - As the month of October 2019 drew to a close, it had turned out to be pretty typical one with the average daily temps running at about 61 degrees.

The average historical temp for that month was 57°F which was also a temperature that I could live without using the furnace! As a result, I was also winning a game I like to play each month - Beating the previous year's power use! Now, I realize I can't do that every month, but when I am looking at just a $65 electric bill, it didn't much matter either way....

At left is a graph of the months highs and lows as compared to last year. All in all, the area was averaging about three degrees warmer than  normal, which was mostly attributable to the slightly higher nighttime temps (Global warming?). This was a good thing as it kept my 1100 square foot condo pretty comfortable.

The daily graph of power used (in kilowatts hours) versus last year helped to validate that low electric bill.

Tracking power use!

Forsyth MO. - Ever since I purchased a Sense power tracking device to replace my older TED unit, I've been on a crusade to save power each month. I track this effort, every month, by graphing the power I was using in kilowatt hours each day. Last year, in October, I averaged about 15 kWh's while this year, I was holding the line at 13 kWh's! But, was that power use going to hold up in 2019?

Looking at the temperatures in 2018, you can see that things took sort of a mini dive towards the end of October in 2018. Interestingly, while the 30 year average high and low was 70°F and 44°F respectively for October, I came in at a tad warmer at 70°F and 51°F. (That averaged out to 60°F which was about 3 degrees warmer than the normal of 57°F).  My best guess is that I will end up at about the same level which will translate into a $66 electric bill from Liberty Utilities.

My Electric bill sucked!

Forsyth MO. - It being winter and all, I'd expect my electric bill from Liberty - a Canadian owned company would be higher than on other more warm months. My bill is split to include the last half of one month and the first half of the next (if that appears to be a half-assed way to do things, it is). This money was to be billed in the middle of February 2019 and so helped to keep the customers somewhat confused...

So, in the later part of December 2018, things were pretty consistent while the first half of January could better be described as chaotic! So, what gives? Well, it all come down to a question of the perception of cold. Foe me, anytime the average temperature for the day is at or above 40 degrees, I tend to leave the furnace off and survive suing a pair of space heaters. When, however, the temps wander into the lower regions, I will most always kick on the furnace and suffer the much higher usage of power. That's pretty much what did happen in the first two weeks of January and I can tell you that things did not improve after the 15th! My bill of $133 was figured on a total KwH amount of 884 multiplied by .13006 cents with an added $18 charge to cover 'use fees' and ADP or additional dealer profit. And you know what? I could live with that excepting that the monies all go to Canada...

Whole house versus single room heating!

Dec 2018 average temps vs last four years averages combined

Data valid for Forsyth, Mo.

Taney County MO. - After getting through the first third of December in a somewhat fine style, it was becoming apparent that my cold weather strategy of heating just one room in my condominium was bearing some savings in heating costs. Following are the current temperature and power use averages:

December 2018 - (Days 1 through 10)

Average temperature: 39.0°F (versus a historical average of 35°F)

Average power used per day: 22.7 KwH's

At the current rate and assuming that the temps continued to hover at close to normal averages, I could expect to expend about 682 kilowatt hours of electricity. With the current rate (Liberty Utilities) at .13006 per KwH, that would result in a 31 day total of $88.70. Then after the COOP finishes packing in additional charges of about $18, I would have a bill equaling about $107 for the month.

Now, had I tried to warm the entire 900 square foot condo, I would have averaged about 39 KwH's each day for a total bill of $175! Thus, I will have saved about $68 by choosing my plan of selective heating.

OK, I get you all. Sixty or seventy bucks ain't all that much of a savings. However, it will be exactly that amount of money that the Electric COOP out of Canada will not be getting out of me!

About that graphic on top. After taking the average of the last four years (2014-2017) and then plotting those against what is happening in 2018, it was pretty clear to see the days were cooler than had been the case before. That trend looked to hold true through at least the 22^nd day of the month too. Last year I consumed 829 KwH's at a cost of ~$126. With me coming in significantly below that figure, not only was I saving some energy, but I was doing so in colder temps than had be the case some past years! That was good news to me.

Massive power outages strike SW MO!

Liberty Utilities of Canada outage map

Forsyth Mo. - Whenever a power outage affects over seven thousand paying customers for any period of time, (this one lasting over two hours), you can expect that companies like Empire/Liberty a foreign owned power coop might receive a little flack from me, as a result. This outage affected approximately 7800 customers with the true cause being unreported as of this post. (The best thinking was that much of the problems were caused by high winds). And, while this author does not sanction rumors including; upper level mismanagement, antiquated infrastructure or poor maintenance procedures... He does feel inclined to think that where the power is found to be out, that there are likely problems to be found.

Summer time power use for 2018!

Forsyth MO: It was august the 12th and so I was arguably in late summer. I thought it might be of historical interest (at least to myself) to take a gander at the power use curves I was experiencing.

Following are the ground parameters:

Space to be cooled = 900 square feet with a volume of about 7,200 cubic feet.
3.5 ton 2 stage AC unit set to maintain 81F.
Blinds were generally closed.
Normal power use items always on - Computer equipment, fans, flat screen TV
Power appliances cyclical: water heater, refrigerator
Occasional use: Convection stove top, microwave, washer and dryer

The following scatter chart reflected energy consumed as compared to the average outdoor temperatures over a period of 8 days where the daily highs ran a gauntlet from 88 up to 96 degrees. Nighttime temperatures averaged from 60 to 68F. In other words a pretty typical period with partly cloudy skies thrown in for good measure.

Click to enlarge

Understanding that my baseline of power use (ie the average consumed with no AC used) was at about 14 kilowatt hours a day, the trend line that was generated using a scatter chart (avg temp vs kwh) correlated rather well. My average daily use of 25.5 kWh's indicated that my electric bill was going to be ((25.5*30)*.13006) +15 or $115. Not too bad as the average internal temp in the condo ranged from 81 to 84 degrees. Note that whenever the average daily temp drops below 74 degrees, I normally have the AC turned off and so follow a power use level that results in electric bills below $100.

EdgeStar CRF321SS Mini Fridge review!

After doing a casual review on the EdgeStar CRF321SS 3.1 Cu. Ft. mini fridge with freezer, I decided to get some hard data for anyone who might be thinking to plunk down the money to purchase one. So, here is some of the data I gathered....

EL USB 2 sensor

Observation dates: October 24-26, 2017

Ambient room temperature ~ 76 - 80ºF.

Sensor: EL USB-2

Power use: Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

Kill A Watt

For the period of the experiment (18 hours for the Freezer), I accumulated the following information:

Freezer data

FREEZER: I placed the USB sensor into the freezer at 3:20 PM CST and got the following readings. Note that while this was not a true scientific styled test, I do feel it did represent the kind of performance that customers could expect.... That said, I did take note that the average temperature was 7.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That was above the recommended setting of 0 degrees, but since I rarely keep foods frozen for very long, it was not a big concern for me... Update: Here was the result (the next graph was after a minor setting adjustment):

 REFRIGERATOR: After measuring the data for the freezer, I then placed the sensor in about the middle area of the refrigerator and recorded for 24 hours. Unlike the freezer, which was not opened during the period of measurement taking, I did open the refrigerator fairly often to retrieve food and beverages. Hey, I'm a thirsty sort of guy!

I was somewhat surprised to see the average temperature of 44.5F! But, I was also not too concerned as I use this fridge to cool bottles of water, V8 and Dole peach cups! Having said that, I did up the cooling dial a bit. It had been centered on medium cool in the past. After doing that and remeasuring, I got this data report:

The power used, over a 24 hour period was up to .44 kWh's! Not bad!

POWER USE: After the 24 hours testing period had elapsed, I had recorded power usage at a total of 0.40 kWh's. That averages out to about .0167 kW's per hour for an estimated cost of .002 cents. (I was using using the .13006 rate that Empire Electric charges for electricity, where I live in southwest Missouri). Doing the math, I would expect the monthly cost for this Energy Star appliance to be at about $1.56! Not too shabby!

NOISE LEVELS: Finally, I used a sound app to get an idea of the decibel level of this unit when it was running. It turned out that I got about 28 decibels, or the sound level that rustling leaves would make! Not bad....

BOTTOM LINE: Since June 2017, when I purchased this unit, I've been extremely happy! www.taneyweather.com

Well, it is spring, and storms do come a knocking!

Taney County MO – The National Weather Service is calling for the potential for severe weather from Wednesday, April 25, on through the coming weekend, several days later! That is noting unusual, and if your electric coop has buried your power and communication cables underground, it should be a non event. For those whose cables are hung on poles, rapid power fluctuation and sudden spikes from lightening bolts could destroy some of your expensive electronics! At the very least, power surges will shorten the life of sensitive equipment!

Ten years ago, the probability of any real harm from lightening was a lot less, as most people had little in the way of sensitive equipment to worry about. Today that isn't the case for many! In my home there are tablets, multiple computers, cellphones, digital TV and a host of other devices that depend on circuit boards in order to operate! Even a surge protector may or may not save them from a close-in strike! So, it pays to be weather aware and to perform a few simple steps to make sure that the storms come and go without incident.

1. Unplug any electronic device that you still want to use after the storm. I generally switch off my computers, routers, TV's and microwave just to be sure they are isolated from power surges.
2. Consider purchasing a better grade of surge protection. This is especially important for that typical ball of outlets that service computer equipment! Check out this article that describes some of the better units.
3. Take out insurance to protect you from just this type of problem, if the manufacturer offers it.
4. Invest in a weather radio with S.A.M.E technology – you'll get timely warnings that pertain only to your county.
5. Where possible, have your equipment clustered off a few switched multi-outlets. Then, all you need to do is to flip a few switches with it begins to boom outdoors!

Lastly, encourage your city and local electric company to invest in underground runs that will make everyone's life a whole lot more enjoyable!

Empire Electric and their raised rates!

 

Taney County MO – Recently I noticed that some of my fellow county citizens were complaining about their electric bills, citing large apparent increases. I investigated this and found some potential reasons why their bills may have jumped!

1. Empire did, in fact, raise its rates recently! Back in September, “The Missouri Public Service Commission on Friday formally approved an agreement its staff and other parties had reached with The Empire District Electric Co. earlier this summer that will result in a monthly increase of $7.60 for an Empire customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month.” This increase went into effect on September 14, 2016! The current rate table for Empire is shown below;
    
   

Note that the Summer Season is the first four monthly billing periods billed on and after June 16, while the Winter Season will be the remaining eight monthly billing periods of the calendar year.

2. Billing by Empire is typically not for the last thirty days but rather about a half month past that point in time. Ergo, my electric bill that just arrived on the 31^st of January was actually for the period December 14, 2016 to January 16, 2017. Of some interest, however, in that later part of December we incurred much warmer temperatures than normal. My readings for that period of time are shown below. Note that were were about four warmer than what the 30 year average had been! Interesting....

In addition, the temps from January 1 to January 16, 2016 were also on the warm side of history reading almost five degrees above what is normal! So, one would think that my bill would be a little lower than last year, wouldn't one?

Interestingly, the kilowatt hours used were greater than the same period last year which further exacerbated a bill that had seen significant rate hikes! Is there something wrong here? Yes, I think that there is! Below is a direct comparison between 2016 and 2017 billings:

 

A very cold 24 hr period in December!

Dec 18-19: Down here in southwest Missouri, an arctic incursion really smacked it to us with an average temperature of about 16 degrees! The translated into 61 kWh's of electricity I had to use to keep my modest adobe warm!  In the chart above, you can visualize just how far from the 'norm' that temperature reading was!

The first arctic outbreak of December 2016!

Forsyth Mo. - All over the news, recently, was a forecast of arctic air that was scheduled to slam into the Taney County Missouri on or about December 7. The forecast sounded serious as the weather service was calling for some morning temps in the lower teens! This from the National Weather Service;

'Overall, it looks like winter will make its first real appearance to the Ozarks over the next week to 10 days.'

My thinking at hearing that news was how I would face the challenge of keeping most of that cold air at bay. I was living in a condo located on at the end of a building on the top floor of a four floor structure, and so my unit would be exposed to the elements from a number of sides. Sure, my building was well insulated, but still there were areas of concern...

For instance, there were two sliding glass doors that lead out to my balcony. They were built in 1991 and were showing their age, as air leakage was a problem. That area was located in the living room, and so I decided to set the furnace on a low setting (60ºF) and then retreat to my bedroom office during the worst of the weather. That location offered a much smaller volume that I hoped to heat adequately with a small space heater. The lone window, in that room, was also treated with a collection of cardboard boxes that would supply some dead air space along with R-values of about 3. That should help a lot, I figured. At least that was the plan....

Last January, when it got cold, in a similar fashion, I used about 45-55 kilowatt hours of electricity to maintain my unit at a livable level. Back then, I have daytime temps in the low 30's while overnight temps got down into the teens! And, as a senior living on a fixed income, I really needed to try and keep those electric bills under some kind of control!

I hope to update this post, beginning December 7 when the weather turns colder.Be sure to visit my weather site at www.taneyservices.com for more real time weather data!

Well it is summer and it's hot!

So what better time for my AC unit to quit on me! Mid July is likely not the best time to be having problems, and after a visit from John's Heating and Air Conditioning Service, I got the news that my 20 year old system was 'on its last legs'! I was also informed that it would be a 'few weeks' before they could get me a new unit installed due to the time of year. Swell. John Lane, President of the company, was nice enough to come out on a Saturday and I got a picture of him standing by his van, but managed to erase it by accident. My bad. At any rate, John seemed very knowledgeable and promised to get me a quote via email. I hope to do a followup post when they get the new unit installed.

While I was waiting for that to take place, I decided to purchase a portable AC unit just to have as a backup and and wanted to evaluate it performance envelope. The unit I ordered was a Honeywell MN10CESWW 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Remote Control. I was told by Greg that it should be able to do a good job of cooling my bedroom area, a place I could retreat to in case the main AC failed. I'll do a critique on this unit when it arrives in a few days.

It's winter energy crunch time! A page out of my diary.

For me, the period between late January and mid February, is crunch time! That is the portion of every winter when, if you are going to get killed with heating costs, really low temperatures can do a number on most everyone down here in SW Missouri. Hopefully, that will not be the case this month of February!

Update: Just as soon as I posted this, I knew it would be bad luck. The National Weather Service which was forecasting a Feb 10th warm up have revised that to a trend to colder weather!

January 2016 arctic front to be a test!

The National Weather Service is forecasting the 'coldest air' of the 2015-16 winter season to begin sometime around the January 9th weekend. To that end, I plan to publish a weather event log concerning what steps I took to save energy use, the data I accumulated and a summery of everything that happened over the estimated three day span. Stay tuned for the start of the dialog beginning on January the 9th!

Leaky sliding glass door experiment!

Note that the average temperature was 31.2 degrees!

In a never ending effort to save a watt here and there, inevitably I run into situations involving winter weather and how to get through them in a warm fashion. Warm, that is, as in not breaking the bank!

Since I'd recently moved to a single bedroom condo and had shed myself of a much larger stick built home, I was hoping the move would also translate into some energy savings. although, I'll admit that the presence of two large sliding glass doors gave me some pause. I knew from experience that the large expanse of glass could translate into huge amounts of heat loss. Not only because of the glass, but also because the seals around them are notoriously leaky, a fact that was born out when I checked them in the fall. I could actually feel air flowing in around the base of each!

As fall moved into winter, I elected to try and seal the base of one of the two doors with good old duck tape. Surprisingly, that worked to some extent! I also purchased a 3M film package large enough to cover one of the doors, figuring that if it worked, I could then go forth and cover the other door. But, before doing that, I wanted to establish a baseline of sorts to see just how large the thermal gradient was between the windows and the rest of the living area they were located in.

I placed two temperature sensors by the base of each door and then situated another towards the back of the living room. All three were wireless and so I was able to monitor the readings from a warmer location. For this test, the furnace was set down to 61F on a night where the high and the low was about 32 degrees.

The results of this impromptu experiment, are shown in the graphic at the start of this post. As I expected, the two glass door areas were definite heat sinks coming in at a steady 50 degrees when the outdoor temps were just at the freezing mark. Interestingly, however, the loss oh heat from the total area was very slow and as a result my furnace never kicked on during the test period. As a result, I was able to survive the night in some comfort (aka my bedroom with a space heater) for just 30 kWh's of power used.  

A great cooking combination!

Every once in a while, even a slow person like myself stumbles on something that works a lot better than what was working for them before!

Since I began using a Duxtop induction stove top along with a Calphalon 10” stainless steel frying pan and Le Creuset two quart round Dutch oven, I've been a happy camper! Between these three kitchen items, I've been able to make most of my meals without having to resort to using the stove top at all!

I got hooked on the induction cooking concept when I learned that not only was the temperature control very precise, it was also extremely efficient power wise. How efficient? Well the previous month I used only 5.0 kWh or about sixty one cents worth of power to make almost all my meals. Between the Duxtop and the microwave, which used about 5.5 kWh's, my total for cooking for the month came to just $1.26!

That was last month and I had not answered my need to cook 'oven type stuff', deferring instead to visit fast food emporiums. So, this month, I added another great watt killer device known as a Breville convection oven to round out my occasional need for baked, roasted or seared food. As of December the 8^th, and after baking numerous chickens, baked potatoes and cookies, I've used a mere 3.27 kWh's or about forty cents! If I were to trend these three appliances out; my total electric cost, for a whole month, would come to 23.6 kWh's! That's a minuscule $2.89 for the entire month and we're talking three course meals, each and every day!!

Nice Wx in early December racks up home energy savings!

Sure! It's only barely the first week into December 2015, but that's OK. I'll take whatever 'Global warming' old Mother Nature decides to throw my way...

The graph of electric energy use above is a little deceptive. Last year I was in a much larger stick built home which currently I'm living in a one bedroom condominium. Having stated that, the savings have been rather impressive this year! At the time of this post (December 8), the National Weather Service was calling for mild conditions to continue into the near term. As I am located in SW Missouri near the Arkansas border, this is really good news. For us, most winter cold spells with precipitation translates to some form of ice!

And so the winter cool down begins!

As we pass by the portal of time that is called December the 1^st, we can almost see the sun arcing lower in the southwestern skies each day as that day becomes a little shorter. Many species of birds and animals know that it's time to head south into warmer climes for the next three months while winter rages around the northern hemisphere. Us humans, well, we aren't so smart all the time!

So, come December, many of us are stuck with dealing with whatever the coming winter deals out. And, it generally gets colder and colder and colder. But, that's not always the case. December 2014, for instance, was one of the better early winter months that I can remember! For one thing the month was 4.4 degrees above normal. And, while the nighttime temperatures did get down to the 30's on a regular basis, there were only nine days where we say the 20's and they were the high 20's at that! Rainfall, and most definitely snowfalls were few and far between. Actually we did get 2.8 inches of rain and zero inches of snow! That put us 2 inches down for the month, but it really wasn't a big deal as we more than made up for it in the months that followed. Electrically, my home used a whopping 500 less kWh's when compared to the year before! And, those savings really helped me out!

So, for me it's all about the average temperatures and exactly where they go. December typically sees a monthly average for the highs and lows at about 35ºF, down where I live in southwest Missouri. Then, January slams in at an average of 33 degrees with February moderating only a bit up to 28! Heating my humble adobe, at an average outside temperature of 33ºF, translates to an electric bill of about 1200-1800 kWh's. At 13 cents per kilowatt hour that amounts to $156 to $234! Let me tell you, getting hit, in that manner, for each of those three months really mounts up for a person living on a fixed income as I do.

Whoa Nellie! Lot's of energy savings for Nov 2015!

With the furnace at idle, I was running my condo at about 15-16 kWh's a day!

Looking back at last November, I can distinctly remember how it was we got clobbered with frigid weather right in the middle part of the month. On the morning of the 14th, it was only 16 degrees above zero! This year, however, the month of November has been a dream as you can see on the graph of power used! The question is, when will the other shoe finally drop?

Some winter considerations for condo dwellers!

Forsyth MO. - Recently, I moved to a condo having forsaken the stick built life. My building is a three story affair supporting 15 units, (some of which are unoccupied during the winter season). I purchased a top floor corner unit which had a number of good selling points. For one thing the kitchen has a window that looks out – something that was important to me for some vague reason. It also has both a spacious front area and balcony that overlooks a pool with a river in the distance. Above me is an attic space that should provide good insulation, but, I have three walls that face the outdoors. So, I have to see how that shakes out. Following are a few of the things I like to do to get ready to get through the really cold spells we get from late December on into March!

Space heaters!

As I am single and living alone, my tenancy during the winter months are to ensconce myself into my office/bedroom where I can write, watch TV and sleep the cold days away. My infrequent ventures out of that space are mainly to raid the fridge in the kitchen. So, one of my strategies was to invest in a couple of small space heaters that contained thermostats to properly heat that space while retarding my electric furnace stat downwards to a cool setting of 64ºF. Past experience had shown me some pretty amazing savings by following that type of scheme.

Windows and sliding glass doors!

In my current location, I have two windows (bedroom and kitchen), a front door and two large sliding glass door the run the length of the outdoor balcony. Of these,my largest concern was the sliding glass doors that looked to be dual pane and which were covered by vertical blinds. These could prove to be a big transmitter of heat and would bear close watching. 3M makes a very good window film that past use, by myself, proved to be valuable in adding another layer of dead airspace where needed and at an affordable cost! These films are easy to install when two people are around and more of a challenge for just one.

My front door appeared to be good to go as I checked the clearances around the top and base for excessive air flow. If needed a simple towel can be used to help seal out the weather on any really cold days. As this area also has a storm door, I plan to check to make sure there are no excessive gaps – If I find any, I'll make sure to seal them properly.

Sinks!

One area that sometimes avoids detection are the locations under sinks where the pipes enter the walls. Any gaps you find can allow for a lot of the heat you paid for to easily escape. To that end, I plan to inspect them and then apply some foam gap filler available online at Amazon, if needed.

Furnace!

Even though I found my furnace cooling fins to be somewhat clogged with dust, I could ignore that face as it used resistive heating elements to warm the house in the wintertime. By keeping my thermostat set low, I hope to keep the use to a minimum.

Well, those are the main area I plan to inspect and repair for this fall. As we move closer to the start of winter, I hope to update this post from time to time.

Update: November 24, 2015 - I've ordered some 3M film, enough to cover one of the sliding glass doors. When that gets installed, I plan to set up an experiment using three temperature sensors so that I might quantify how much (or how little) it helped. I'll post a link here.