An update on energy use

I haven’t updated the blog for 2 years, so here are the last two years worth of figures and the previous year for reference.

Season	Degree Days @17.5C	Average Per Day
2008-2009	2134	10.51
2009-2010	2121	10.45
2010-2011	2072	10.21

Our energy usage appears to have stabilized; here’s the daily average usage in kWh.

	Low Rate Electricity	High Rate Electricity	Gas	Average Total	Per Degree Day
08-09	7.20	16.30	71.90	95.40	9.08
09-10	7.09	16.18	62.52	85.79	8.21
10-11	7.14	18.46	60.73	86.33	8.46

What happened in 09-10?  My wife was away skiing, and it was also very cold.  I took the opportunity to tape over the open fire in the lounge with cardboard and duct tape.  I had planned to stick a picture of some flames on top too, but never got around to that part.

That simple measure dropped our usage by over 10%.

In November 2010 we replaced our open fire with a balanced flue system, installed additional installation over another part of the loft, and installed new double glazed french doors.  Despite this, it appears that our usage actually increased, though that may have been caused by a large family Christmas last year.  We also actually used the fireplace, and the loung was a little warmer.

It certainly felt like a colder winter last year, despite the number of degree days being lower, and we had long period of snow and sub zero temperatures.

Alas, because of the balanced flue, we began to have some problems with condensation, because air wasn’t being sucked out of the chimney, so we also began using a dehumidifier for some of the year to prevent condensation.  It turned out reorganizing the loft to add additional insulation had blocked the airflow, and that was actually the cause, so we now rarely use the dehumidifier.

Again, I also tracked our neighbours usage (with their permission of course)

	Average Daily Total kWh	Per Degree Day @ 19.5
08-09	106.70	8.50
09-10	98.93	7.95
10-11	94.74	7.76

This autumn, we install Solar PV, as I mentioned earlier today.  Fingers crossed we can bring down the energy usage even more.  I’ve also started a campaign to hibernate off PC’s when you’re not actually sitting at them.