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.

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!

The July Heat Wave in Forsyth Missouri

The graphic represents the temperature range that has existed in and near Forsyth Missouri during the month of July 2011. The data is from the first to the end of the month for the graph above. During that period the majority of high readings were at or above 90F with the red line representing 95F. In addition, eight of the days were one hundred degrees Fahrenheit or higher.  When combined with nighttime lows that often never dropped below the mid seventies, the end result was a classic heat wave scenario. This kind of heat, especially when combined with little rainfall (less than half an inch) made it very difficult for both animals and plants. It was also a time of stress for the central air conditioner in my home.

The chart here shows a couple of interesting tidbits of information. Displayed is the average temperature for each day and below that the amount of energy that was used for air conditioning. As you can see when ever the average temperature reading ran at 80F or higher there was a corresponding dramatic rise in energy usage. The total for the period through the 23^rd was 410 Kwh or about $38 worth of electricity.

 As a final thought, apparently the local Electric Coop (Empire) is also struggling with heat related problems. They have experienced a record seven outages in my area over the last few weeks with the worse one lasting more than two hours yesterday evening. Whether the outages are due exclusively to the heat remains to be seen. It's also possible that aging infrastructural problems may be plaguing the company.