Energy Savings Update - March Edition

As far as energy savings goes, this is a big milestone in Lowerfootprint's journey! I received my electricity bill for mid-January through mid-March, arguably the worst part of the heating season and historically my biggest bills of the year. At the last bill and subsequent update, the window and insulation upgrades to the house were just about complete, thus this is the first bill that reflects the entire project's impact on our heating costs.

Needless to say, I'm not at all disappointed. Energy usage for the period was down 28.1% over the same period last year, which over two months of heating is roughly $300. So, how did that happen?

First, the windows and insulation greatly improved the house's ability to hold heat once it was generated. This is clearly a more bang for you buck situation. The longer the heat lasts, the less often the electric radiators come on. Obvious enough.

Second, with all of the programmable thermostats installed, every room was only heating when necessary, instead of an all or nothing situation. The house was more comfortable, bathrooms were warm in the morning, and so on.

Third, we used up about half a cord of wood during January and February. This cleaner, efficient and sustainable heat source did a lot of our space heating and kept the house at a comfortable level while also drying the air and making the house feel warmer.

Fourth, the pop can solar furnace has been working hard over the last two weeks of the billing period. With cool temperatures but lots of sunshine, the solarium has been reaching into the 30C range (yesterday it hit 38C!) and that completely free heat drove the average temperature in the main areas of the house up by about 3C in the early evening when we get home from work.

Finally, by all accounts it was a very mild and reasonable winter. An early thaw did a lot to offset the need for a lot of additional heat. I think it's time to re-program the thermostats for summer mode. Between the longer days and the warmer outdoors temperatures, I think it's safe to rely on the pop can solar furnaces for the rest of our heating needs... with some chopped wood in reserve in case it's cloudy for an extended period.

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Energy Savings Update

The holiday season is typically one where we use a lot of extra power... the oven is on more than usual, Christmas lights are blinking away on the tree. It's also the darkest month of the year and if you have family visiting like I did, it means that the thermostats are probably up a bit or on a bit more often than usual.

When I received my power bill today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that despite a relatively normal holiday season, with a full house, my power consumption from Nov 16 to Jan 14 was down by 21% from the same period last year! The daily average was also down roughly 17% (meaning the savings was not consistently spread around maybe). Depending on the math (and not including any prices increases), that's about $175.00 in real savings.

I find this very encouraging and I will be taking further steps to lower this even more! Here's what was done during this period that may have contributed to the savings:

- every room has a programmable thermostat set to 15C. Active living areas get up to 19C when in use, but automatically turn down over night and during the day.
- the new wood stove burned roughly a 1/2 cord of wood during this period. This was certainly a major contribution to the savings.
- the windows and new insulation were started during this period and while they were never more than 50% complete, this will be a major contributor moving forward!
- Christmas lights were mostly LEDs and even the outdoor red and green lights were CFLs.
- While the pop can solar furnace didn't get a whole lot of attention (or sun!) over this period, it did warm up significantly on a few days which would have mitigated any losses to that part of the house.

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Savings from Burning Renwable Wood

Happy New Year! All the best for 2010!

I recently had a wood stove insert added to my home. It's a high efficiency, modern insert and the goal is to produce a bit more heat for the home, more efficiently, more cheaply, and more sustainably than using the electric baseboards (which get their energy from burning coal).

I recently came across this fantastic workbook by the CHMC: A Guide to Residential Wood Heating. It's a must read for anyone who is considering a wood option for their home or for a new construction.

Of particular interest for me, was a calculation of costs for using wood versus electricity. I had to work it out for myself, but I'm thrilled with the results. Check out page 76 and 77 of the pdf for details.

I was able to calculate that my electric heat costs roughly $3055 per year using these calculations. This feels about right, since I also use electricity for hot water and cooking and lighting, this is about 70% of my annual electric bill.

Going for the same amount of heat by wood results in a cost of $1351, a savings of about $1700 a year. This tells me two things: 1) I'd need about 4.5 cords of wood per year to fully heat my home, and 2) this savings would be if I relied solely on wood heat. With my programmable thermostats, I'd still be doing a bit of electric warming in small rooms at certain times of the day and I probably wouldn't have the stove running 24/7 either.

But now I know that the effort required to run the stove is definitely worth it. The stove will pay for itself in 2 to 3 years, even after the cost of wood is counted.

A Day of Change

It's been a while since I've had a chance to update the blog, but the best way to get back in is simply to do it!

I just wanted to mark today and join in the crowd of well-wishers on the occasion of Obama's inauguration. The environmentally-minded and alternative energy supporters hold a lot of hope for the new president's promise to invest heavily in solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources. It's our job to educate, facilitate, and support these initiatives.

And it's our job to hold him accountable.

In time.

Let's see what the first hundred days has to bring first.

If anyone follows the US political system closely, you can help me report on things like motions in the Senate, bills that are passed, and items that relate to alternative energy and conservation issues. Just drop me a note!

Coming soon: Stop Global Warming and more Dalhousie Million Acts of Green info.