Everyone knows that I love a good graph, so it was about time I posted some energy statistics.
The first graph (click to enlarge), shows our total electricity usage average per day each month. In August it reached an all time low (for this year) of 10.76 kWh per day which is pretty good. I am expecting the next few months to be a little bit higher because of all the guests we will be accommodating in late September and early October.
This next graph shows how the electricity that we used was generated. Brown for dirty coal, Green for Solar PV, and blue as the total usage for the household. We also noticed on our power bill the other day that for whatever reason the 100% GreenPower tariff has been removed and it was replaced by 25% Green wind power. I better enquire about that post haste. Maybe the energy retailer can’t keep up with GreenPower demand in this state? Because they removed this, I am responsible for GHG emissions over the last billing period. Not good, for someone who is supposed and reports to be uber green. That equals 496.8 kg of CO2e attributed to my household. Not good enough, so it will be fixed lickety split with Origin Energy. I may have offset that carbon already by planting the 10 fruit trees in the front orchard over the same period, so I don’t feel too guilty 🙂
Anyway, everything looking good, and with longer sunny days nearly upon us, there will be more Solar PV than grid electricity used anyway. I am hoping to get a negative power bill over the spring season, but we will just have to wait and see. I am glad that the purchase of the cheese cave has not made a material impact on our energy usage, so I can still have a big smile on my face when stuffed with cheese and crackers!
Nice downward trend in power use Gavin – what caused the sharp drop from February to March?
Hi James. Would you believe Air-conditioning. January and February were the hottest two months on record in Melton, Victoria, AU.
Even though we tried and used it sparingly it accounted for a lot of energy in those months. After is cools down, it is quite easy to minimise power usage, because all of our habits for energy conservation are well and truly embedded in all of our family members.
Gav
I can totally believe that January and February were hot, because I know Melton!
Your stats are great, Gavin. Keep on greening! 🙂
Which reminds me, I need to start tracking and posting ours!
Good post Gav,
As you know I have installed a energy meter so we can know what we are using and when. I am writing this comment in my office with all our office lights off. We have rearranged the office so we can maximize the use of natural light and now on bright days (like today) we don’t need the office lights on.
I’ll have to write a post about it soon.
Thanks again for your post Gav