Let the fall heating games begin!

There comes that day, every fall, when I find myself forced to use axillary heat for the first time of the season. This year, that day came on the morning of the 16^th of October when I awoke to an outside temperature of 46°F! Inside, my bedroom thermometer read 72.1°F and the house, in general was at 69.4°F. (I think the difference in temperatures is due to the fact that I have two computer towers in my room that run 24/7. They both generate a little heat and might account for the small difference).

So, now I guess I can expect my electrical use to go up a bit. I'm toying with the idea of setting the programmable thermostat to an 'on' setting as it has been off for the majority of the month. The last time I had needed AC was on September the 11^th, so it had been some time for the change over to me needing heat instead of cooling. 

This year, I have a Delonghi space heater that worked great last autumn and winter and which I think saved me a few bucks on heating costs. Be sure and join me via this blog as I once again battle the evil electric coop and try to SAVE ENERGY ONE WATT AT A TIME!

Heating forecast for February 2013!

Right now, as we’re approaching the middle of February and I think I have a handle on what we all can expect heating-wise for this second month of the year.

According to the records from the National Weather Service, we are running about a full degree behind last year (West Plains data). My electric use (heating for my home is all electric) for last year was 1,145 kWh. This year my trending is about the same. However, over the next 10 days, the temperature trend will drop some, by about another three degrees on average, so I’m expecting the overall heating cost to ratchet up a bit for that period. All told, I’m going to estimated slightly higher bills than what we had last season for the southwestern section of Missouri. Say, about 5% or so. I'll also assume that my graphic above is about as clear as mud!

On cold temperatures and gusty winds!

Can cold temperatures outside when combined with gusty winds rack up winter heating costs? That was the question that crossed my mind as I checked my power use for what turned out to be a very cold Christmas Day in December. ‘Why’, I wondered, ‘would windy conditions cause such a large heating surge especially when all the other factors were equal’? What came to mind was a very similar day earlier on the month, December 10, yet that day used 48.9 kWh while the 25^th managed to chew through 71.1 kWh. which also represented a 32% increase in heating costs!! Following are the side by side by side stats for both days;

Click on to enlarge

You'll notice that the mean or average temperature for the 10th was 28.3F, while that of the 25th was 29.1F. So, Christmas Day was actually a tad warmer. Likewise the sky conditions, dew points and relative humidity figures were also very similar. Also, when I looked at furnace settings, appliances and electronics used; both days were about average. So, it was apparent to me that the only real difference in the two days was the wind! In fact, December the 10th was much less windy than the 25th! So, I felt this so-called 'wind effect' deserves a bit more research. I'll plan on doing a followup post later this winter season.

New Nest thermostat is up and running!

I received my nest on this posting date and had it up and running in about thirty minutes. Between the technical support and what they send you with the unit, I have to admit it was easier than I had thought!

After I got it to communicate with the internet, the unit downloaded an update and then went into a setup mode that was sort of spooky as it was able to analyze my heat pump to a T. I then went to my computer and accessed the unit online (it works in the cloud) and was also able to set it up on my droid phone so that I can control everything from where ever I happen to be.

Weekly schedules can be easily set up

I was very happy with the simple interface that quickly allowed me to set up a custom schedule that can be changed on a whim. Also, this unit has a learning mode whereby it can figure out your heating and cooling preferences. Pretty neat little package all told.

At some point in the future, I plan to do a post on how well I feel the Nest performs overall.

Update: Well, that point in the future has come! The NEST has turned out to be one of my better purchases. It's performance has been flawless and being able to set up a custom schedule has saved me money - a lot of it! I also like the ability to access it via my smart cell phone.

Three day study of temperature versus power use

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 Here is an interesting chart that depicts indoor and outdoor conditions and the effects of cold temperatures on a 2 stage heat pump that has been set to heat a house to 60F. Auxiliary space heat was used to also heat one room to 71F. This test was part of an ongoing series of experiments to help determine how one could save money during the colder months of fall and winter.Note what happens when the temperature dropped below 35F outside and the heat pump was forced to change over to resistive heating as a result.

Coming soon – The Nest!

After finishing up some studies concerning the saving of energy during cold bouts of weather, I decided to go ahead and purchase a learning thermostat device called the Nest! I’ve determined that, while I can save significant amounts of money by retreating to one room over the course of a cold spell, I still needed to address the house energy envelope as a whole.

I think the Nest is just the device to fill the ticket as it is not only programmable, but it is also network friendly meaning I can access it via a computer or my smart phone. I plan to write a few posts on this topic in the near future.

Where heat pumps end up costing money!

I have a dual stage heap pump that services my home and for the most part it does a great job. That is, as long as the outside temps don’t get much below 35°F that is…

The graph above represents actual data of high and low temperatures taken November 2012. For this far in the month, the temperatures have average spot on to historical averages for the last thirty years; about 47°F. So, in fact, this has been a pretty average month, so far. (The mean temperature standard was taken from the weather service's figures for West Plains Mo. for the month of November and rounded).

Now, take a look at the area I’ve marked in yellow – there were 10 out of the 20 days where the overnight lows got down below 35°F. I took these days and averaged out the kilowatt hours of power that was used for those days and came up with 26 kWh. Next, I took and averaged out the power consumed for the other 10 days where it didn’t get quite so cold and arrived at a figure of 18 kWh! Now, since the heap pump will tend to switch over to resistive heating elements below 35°F, I’m guessing that the difference in cost to me will be about 30% more in terms of the electric bill.I'm also guessing that, for a large part, it doesn't matter as much how warm it is during the daytime as it does how cold it gets at night. It'll be interesting to see what happens during the days when the thermometer never gets above freezing, should we experience that later on in the year.

Over the coming winter, I’ll keep an eye on this and see if it holds true.

Notes: During this period of time, the heat pump thermostat was set at 60°F.