» posted on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 at 11:04 am by Woody Wilson viewed 159 times

My Home Energy Monitor: Part 5 (Time for Action)

Rick Nicholson
29.10.2010 kl 22:08 | IDC Energy Industry Insights Community

Since receiving and installing my web bridge I’ve collected 4 weeks worth of energy consumption data and am now able to view and analyze my data using Google PowerMeter. My daily average is 1,012 W, my always-on usage is 466 W (which surprised me) and my home uses 32% less than other similar homes. I can see daily patterns including spikes in usage and I’m told what my current usage is compared to past usage (right now I’m 21% over expected usage so far today – oh dear!). Google PowerMeter also suggests certain actions such as installing CFL bulbs, unplugging chargers and putting computers in stand-by mode.

Now that I’ve got a decent amount of data and some suggested actions – what to do next? Well, I’ve decided the next reasonable step is a home energy audit. Lucky for me that I live in Colorado and the Governor’s Energy Office has a great website to guide me through all of the options and rebates available http://rechargecolorado.com/ By using the site I learned that my electric utility offers free home energy audits so I called them and scheduled one. Unfortunately they were busy until December, but hey at least it’s free!

I figured this was the most logical approach because it seemed like Google PowerMeter’s suggestions might not give me the biggest bang for the buck. However, the audit will undoubtedly raise some interesting issues. My home energy monitor only monitors electricity usage – not gas – and my home uses gas for space heating and hot water. What if the audit finds that my biggest savings come from reducing my gas usage instead of electric? I’ve got no way to monitor that. Yet another bump along the road of early technology adopters I suppose, but it just goes to show that the hype in this market is way ahead of the reality.

Look for my next post on this topic after my home energy audit in early December.

Written by: Woody Wilson. on November 10, 2010.March 27, 2012