My power use for the first really warm day of late June!

For anyone who lives on a fixed income, you live or die based on variable costs like electricity which can fluctuate by as much as 30% from one month to the next. In general, we all get a break twice a year; in the spring and then again in the fall when neither the furnace or the AC is running.

Thus far, I'd been able to skate by with my AC in the off position until the 17^th of June when it began to get seriously hot. By noon on that day, the temperature outdoors read 86°F and seemed headed for 90 or so by the late afternoon. The relative humidity read 60% and that more than anything else prodded me to turn my heat pump to cool to 81°F. In my room, at that time, the reading was 83°F which felt a bit warm. I was running a ceiling fan which helps up to only a point. I had been averaging 15.3 kWh thus far in the month, but felt sure that was going to change upwards pretty quickly! (I was, in point of fact, trending towards a total power use of about 582 kWh through the 16^th. The would equate to an electric bill from Empire Electric of only about $80).

At 12:00 Noon, I noticed I had used 8.8 kWh of power (since midnight) which was not too bad. At that rate (.733 kilowatts per hour) I could normally expect to finish the day at about 17.6 kWh which would be very doable and in line with the monthly average. (That was not be the case, however).

Quite often in the early summer, we get pop up thunderstorms that serves to cool everything down before moving on. It's not unusual to see the temperatures drop twenty degrees or more as the rain transports cold upper air down to the ground. Unfortunately as you can see at right, the radar over southwest Missouri was not looking very promising!

A fourteen hundred square foot home such as the one I live in and which is a stick-built ranch style dwelling with a basement (cooling effect) – I can normally expect a buffering effect from the outside temperatures to last for a couple of hours after the temperature gets much above the cooling level set for the AC – or, in my case, 81°F. On this date, we hit the 81'outside' degree mark at 9:54 AM. The AC kicked on, for the first time at 11:01 AM and then kicked off at 11:39 AM (see graph). Poof! A few kilowatt hours of power spent on cooling! Of note also was an attic reading of 108.9 degrees! So, above my head was that kind of head while below in the basement it read 65°F. A temperature that is maintained pretty much no matter what's going on outside! And, there I was stuck in the middle!

12:43 PM – AC kicked on – outside temperature was then at 86.6°F. Inside was 83.8°F. Attic reading was 110.7°F. Clouds were increasing a bit – the sky was at about 50% coverage. AC was on for 1 hour.

3:00 PM – The temperature outside was 89.2°F. Inside, it was 82.6°F with an attic temperature of 115.2°F. Power use at that moment was 13.2 kWh. At 3:10, the AC kicked back on. The temp out was then 90°F.

The AC kicked on two more times – at about 5PM and 7PM, at which point things cooled down enough to retire its operation for the balance of the day. The total power used was 26.2 kWh. Assuming that 15.3 kWh was average, this meant I used 10.9 kWh for cooling. This come to about a buck in terms of cost.

My heating bills are driving me batty!

This chart nicely translates into the approx costs per month

Starting with this past December, my electric bills have skyrocketed compared to what they were in the past! It's been three winter seasons since I've seen heating bills this high. Part of the reason for the increase have been the progressive rate hikes by the local electric cooperative aka Empire Electric. My rates have seen something like a 24% increase in the electric rates since 2010. As a result, I've suffered back to back bills that were well over $200 and fully expect the same treatment after February when all said and done.

February, which just got started as of this post, could well be a record breaker in terms of cold temperatures. As of the 3^rd, my location in Forsyth MO is ten degrees below average and we have five more days that will struggle to see the twenty degree mark for a high!

So, in an effort to reduce my overall bill for February, I plan to recuse myself to my bedroom while setting the whole house temperature setting back to 66F during the daytime hours. I have a small space heater and a humidifier running 24/7 to help keep conditions livable. 

A tale of energy use woe!

Click on to enlarge graph

Nothing tells a story quite like a graph! These two scatter charts represent the first ten days in December 2013 versus the entire month last year. The y-axis shows kilowatt hours and the x-axis represents the average or 'mean temperatures' experienced from one day to the next. Below is a chart of the high and low temperatures this year compared to last year. We are currently 2 degrees below the average of 35F.

Click on to enlarge

Last year, I kept most of my house at about 66F while maintaining my bedroom at 72F. This year, I've used a Nest thermometer to set a schedule to raise the house to about 68F during the mid day hours and then to drop it back to 60F overnight. I used space heaters hooked to a thermostat to maintain the higher bedroom temperature.This has worked out well with the exception of the colder than normal temperatures in the early going of Dec 2013. At this time, I'm on track to hit about 2000 kWh's versus on 1400 for last year.

In a perfect month, most of the dots should center somewhere around the 35 degree mark as that is the historical average for my location in southwest Missouri. This year everything looks like it might be skewed to the left (colder).

Window treatments for winter savings!

Surprisingly, anywhere from “12% to as much 30% of a homes heating bill goes to make up for heat loss through windows”. So, if they are not properly insulted, they can have a major impact on the overall of heating cost of a dwelling over the winter months. But, what can the average homeowner do? Or, should I say, what are some cheap and simple things that can be done to improve the overall thermal envelope of a home? Why treat your windows, of course!

Single versus double paned windows

Most homes in my area have double paned windows. This means that the windows in your home actually consist of two panes of glass with an air space in between. This type of window significantly decreases the amount of heat loss as opposed to the single pane variety. (If your home has single pane windows, then stop right there and get them replaced ASAP! That will cure a lot of what ails your heating bill). To estimate your heating loss via your windows, please check out this site. The formula is pretty simple to us and it will give you a grass roots idea of whether or not you might want to go ahead and apply extra protection against heat loss. I came up with a figure of about $50 per month for my home. (Note that single pane windows have a multiplier effect of over two times the cost of what double pane windows would incur). Wow!

Drapes and blinds

It was somewhat surprising to me just how effective something like a simple set of blinds or drapes can be in helping to prevent heat loss! I've done a few simple experiments that have show a temperature differential of six to ten degrees difference in a window area just by using such simple covering. So, a rule of thumb would be that when cold weather threatens, just make sure to cover the windows! A simple and stupid way to make an improvement – I like that!

Another way to improve the thermal profile of a window are is to simply cover it with a layer of plastic. Companies like 3M sell easy to apply window kits that are inexpensive and really do make a difference! I've used these in the past an plan to do so again this year. With a little bit of practice, you

can do an average sized window in no time at all. And, that extra layer of sealed air space really does work. You'll be able to actually feel it come the next really cold day by simply hold your hand near a protected window versus an unprotected one. Best of all, your 'treatment' will not be noticeable to anyone driving by your home (see picture at right)!

If that's too expensive for you or if you have a really large glass surface to protect, like a sliding glass door, for instance, you can go put and purchase large sheets of plastic very cheaply. I purchased a 3 foot by 50 foot roll of 5 ml plastic sheet from a local hardware store at a cost of only about $8. That plastic and some duck tape are all that you need to form a thermal barrier that can save everyone some major bucks over the course of a long hard winter.

Things could be worse! You could be living in Britain!!

After grousing about the 7% recent hike in my electric bill, I came across this article....

Oct 2013 - UK energy companies certainly have an ability to step in it - all the way up to the knees. What makes it the more remarkable is the callous way in which they move from one crisis to the next.

All of which has obliged a hasty revision in the strategy for my meetings here.

The latest imbroglio involves a very unwelcome (and significant) spike in energy prices as the nation moves into the winter season.

The UK market is controlled by six dominant providers of electricity and heat: British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Npower, SSE, and Scottish Power. And when one of them raises its rates, the rest are certain to follow.

That march is now underway. British Gas announced on Friday an average 9.2% increase, effective November 23. That followed a recent decision by SSE to hike rates an average of 8.2% beginning on November 15.

And right on cue, Npower yesterday became the third to hike prices, announcing an average increase of 11.1% to begin December 1.

Temperature study in October 2013

Last night (Oct 18), I endeavored to record various temperature readings with a mind to track energy use on a night where outdoor readings approached the upper thirties. For the experiment, I used a Meade wireless station that had two remote sensors; one placed outdoors and one placed in my living room. I was thereby able to record the temperatures of three areas; my bedroom where the master unit was, the outdoors and the living room on an hourly basis from 4:00 PM on Friday October the 18 to 9:00 AM the next morning. I was curious to see what amount of power would be required to keep my bedroom in the mid seventies via the deployment of a Delonghi space heater. During this experiment and even though my whole house Nest thermostat was set to a threshold heating of 68°F., the furnace never kicked in even though the readings in the living room were clearly below that level. I'm

guessing that the reason was due to the more isolated position of the hallway where the thermostat is located.

The base electrical use for my home with the various background devices in use is approximately 0.427 kWh. This figure includes two computers that run 24/7 in my bedroom and which do supply some residual heat as a result. The other main contributors are the water heater which cycled on and off three times (see graphic) and the refrigerator whose power consumption is too low to appear on the power graph due to the scale of time. So, as you can see, the average amount of electrical heat energy needed to keep my bedroom in the mid seventies was about .400 kWh which equates to about a dollar and change over a full day of heating (.4x24=9.6 kWh x 0.1149 cents per kWh = $1.10).

To put this mess into some sort perspective, my electrical use went from about 13 kWh for an average day with no auxiliary heat to about 21 kWh with it. (This extra heat was needed to offset a mean temperature of 49 degrees outdoors which is not too far distant from what I am hoping will be the mean temperature for a much warmer than normal November). I base this assumption on the fact that the average power consumption for the past two Novembers was 621 kWh or about 20.7 kWh of electrical use per day. So rather than the historical average temperature of 46.8°F (West Plains MO data), I am hoping for a few more mean degrees warmer. [Note: There are numerous flys in this ointment of my reasoning which I will address in a later posting].

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!