Energy Use Update

Just a really quick update. Another power bill arrived and the period for March 15th to May 14th was 25% lower than the same period last year. It takes a while to see a complete ROI (return on investment) for insulation and window purchases, but I think it's pretty reassuring to see some savings every month, even when the weather and outside temperature was improving!

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Earth Hour is This Saturday!

Today I thought I would highlight some of the local events connected with Saturday's Earth Hour celebrations!

Nova Scotia Power has a page dedicated to Earth Hour, including a countdown and links to some activity ideas for while the lights are out! Also included on the page are links to year-round energy saving tips, plus details about NS Powers plans to turn off the office lights for the event as well. Check back to this page to see the results. NS Power will be posting them after the event!

There is also word of a concert happening at the Parade Square in downtown Halifax. Here are the details:

Come and celebrate Earth Hour this year at Grand Parade Square in front of City Hall in Halifax and join us for a FREE CONCERT by ECMA winning artists: Sons of Maxwell and Dave Gunning!

WWF-Canada, Atlantic Region will be joined by Mayor Peter Kelly, Conserve Nova Scotia, and CarShareHFX for this family-oriented event.

Astronomy Nova Scotia will be also on site with their telescopes for stargazing.

Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Time: 7:30pm – 10:00 pm (Earth Hour is 8:30pm - 9:30pm lights out)
Location: Grand Parade in front of City Hall, Halifax, NS

Lots to do! How are you going to observe Earth Hour this year?

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Earth Hour 2010 Countdown Video

Earth Hour 2010 is almost here... have a look at this cool video which includes footage of lights out events since 2008. Enjoy!

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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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Welcome to the Shoulder Season

It's a beautiful 14C day in Halifax and we've been enjoying a steady stream of sunny days over the last two weeks. March has been unseasonably nice and today students are wandering campus in short sleeves and bare shoulders.

This is one of the two shoulder seasons for the heating year, a term I'm appropriating from the tourism business. Due to cloudy and deep cold, there isn't much opportunity for my pop can solar furnace to work during December to February. But in March and April, and again in October and November, there is the perfect combination of sunshine and mild temperatures. The last few evenings have been cold, sometimes dipping below zero. I haven't had to use electric heat or even start a fire because the solarium has been hot enough to warm the house to 22C or higher. The pic above is the temperature in the solarium (32C!) just after opening the door around 5pm. The heat drifts into the rest of the house, which, now insulated, holds the heat quite nicely for the entire evening. By bed time, I slide the door to the solarium closed to minimize any drafts and the process is ready for the next day. I expect to see some serious savings on my next power bill.

Of course, I will have to remove a few of the pop can solar furnace panels by the end of April. The room will simply too hot by then to be enjoyable and the heat won't be needed in the house at all. If only I could store it for the winter...

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Earth Hour 2010 Countdown

As we approach Earth Hour 2010, I thought it would be fun to do a quick review of the last one. There are some great images of some major cities during last year's Earth Hour.

Source: Boston.com via Earth Hour Canada

Some are obviously more impressive than others, but even a modest change in lighting can result in both big savings and less energy production. One of the main lessons here for me is that we can routinely do with a little less. A few lights turned off, a few appliances not running and we're making a small but real difference - without a catastrophic change in lifestyle.

In other Earth Hour news, at least one Tim Hortons in my area is observing the power down to some extent. Signs are up already so customers are well prepared... more to come.

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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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How do you calculate the cost of a CFL?

In the last post, I quickly calculated the cost of running a CFL for 8 hours and knew how much a comparable incandescent bulb would cost. How did I do the math?

I used an online CFL cost calculator.

Do you have an interesting situation that saves a ton by using a CFL? Let me know!

Timers and CFLs

I don't get frustrated easily, but when there are three people living in one house, I'm never sure if I'm the last one going to bed or not. With my studies, I sometimes disappear into my room at a relatively early hour and simply go to bed without coming out again.

So when I get up in the morning and find a living room light still burning, part of my eco-heart dies.

The fix? Another timer and a CFL bulb. I set the timer to come on at 6pm and go off at midnight. That about matches the current sunset (I'll adjust it as spring creeps in) and most of us are in bed by midnight. While having a light on for six hours even if no one is home seems wasteful, the reality is that most nights the light is on from before midnight until I turn it off around 8am. So, I've just saved 8 hours of usage a day.

Do the math: This immediately saves me about $4 per year (almost $18 if it had been an incandescent bulb!). This clearly pays for the timer and the bulb.

This makes me think about the outdoor lights which also sometimes get left on (mostly by me!). A simple replacement of the wall switch should do the trick and actually improve security. A see a trip to the hardware store!

Home Electricity Monitoring... by Google?

I just read an interesting note on Forbes.com. It appears as though Google is testing a home-electricity monitoring system, with 20 employees currently using the system and plans to take it bigger as the year rolls on.

The product is purportedly called "PowerMeter" and is part of the Google.org set of energy conservation projects. More info to follow in the weeks to come!