January's Comparison of Therms and KWhs

So, on the road to any solar system you have to reduce consumption. We have been making changes, but now we have the data from two years to see if our changes have reduced our energy consumption.

This past year made some pretty big changes.

• We insulated the garage with a eco-friendly spray foam and drywalled over this. This should reduce gas and heat with less heating and cooling needed. Not to mention we don't have to put our coats on to go out to put recycling. We still need to tape and mud for a better seal, but we are waiting for warmer weather to do that.
• We programmed our thermostat. It is now set at 66 degress from 6am -8pm, 64 degress for two hours on either side of that, and 62 degress from 10pm until 4am. It really isn't too bad until after 10pm. Jason may disagree, but he likes the lower gas bill. This saves both gas and electric consumption with decreasing the heating load. (The gas heats the air, but the electricity blows it).
• I have also been washing many of our clothes on cold and turned down our water heater. This should decrease our gas consumption for heating water.
• We replaced all of our lights in and out with CFBs and we have have been turning out our lights as much as possible. We know about the mercury and promise we are recycling any that burn out. This decreases electric consumption.
• Another one is turning off electronics at night. Those computers and blinking lights are sucking electricity while we are all snoozing.
• Also, I am in the process of sealing all our exterior wall light switches and outlets. (More details to come on this one.) This should also help with heat and cooling losses and reduce heating and cooling. If we reduce our air leakage by 20% we can get money back from our state program. This might be a tough one to do, but we are trying!

Electricity
January 2008 - 1607 kWh

January 2009 - 1075 kWh

Gas
January 2008 - 248 Therms (average temp 21 degrees)

January 2009 - 264 Therms (average temp 13 degrees)

So, electricity decreased consumption quite a bit! Gas was up a bit, but the weather didn't help us much on that count. Stay tuned this month we are wrapping the water heater, the hot water pipes, taping the forced air pipes, and getting a low-flow shower head. Hopefully, we will reduce that gas consumption for next month! So onward and forward.