Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland
I'm really interested in seeing how sharply I can make my bills drop, it's hard of course to truly compare month to month without a year to look back on,
|
We get a real bill only once a year. We pay 10 times a year based upon estimated bills. To optimize our consumption I began to look at my daily consumption.
I'm noting my daily consumption since end of September, every 3-5 days first, then daily since end of October. We have peak and off peak hours, so both values are noted. This permitted us to detect an error in the heating programmer
With a simple spreadsheet I'm calculating a yearly forecast with the last 26 days before switching on the heating and the days since. We used 12MW last year, I'm forecasting a 10MW use this year ie a 16% saving
At last real bill (beginning of December) they refunded us 750kWh.
We optimized our consumption in different ways :
- heat less : lower temperature.
- heat less bis : fewer hours. Stop the heating sooner as the cooling is slow (think pulse & glide
). Here we leave the home at 9AM so we stop the heating at 8AM.
- heat less ter : ceiling fan on winter position and lowest speed. I can't say how much it saves but the thermometer at head height displays 1°C less and we have less often a sensation of cold. This works as the thermostats are at the bottom at the radiators, ie half a feet high. We use the more silent fan when in house (the second is too noisy even if it's at the other side of the house) and both when nobody is at home.
- heat differently : if you have off peak then use that. Here off peak is up to 6:30AM so we start to heat at 6AM. Daily we use a little more energy but the total cost is lower.
The heat programmer manages 2 zones : living room & kitchen (in fact single room) and the other rooms. As these 2 zones have different temperatures and heat time, the doors are kept closed between these zones.
The water heater starts only when it receive the off peak signal
The dishwasher is used only during off peak hours, so we start it when we go to bed.
Finally I'm using a WattMeter to measure different consumptions. From that we changed our old fridge (500kWh/year saved) and I changed 2 computers (used 24x7) with 2 laptops (1.2MWh/year saved). We identified the next appliances on which we'll have the more saving. We have CFL since years and I calculated we are saving at least 75% of lighting bill, ie 440kWh/year.
This summer we didn't used our portable AC. We placed shades over the terrace and the two 2x4m (6x12ft) windows
and of course used both ceiling fans in summer position and fastest speed.
Enough for tonight
Denis.