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Home Electric Consumption bscallywag 10-01-2007
Posted by bscallywag on October 1, 2007, 3:59 pm
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 Hi all

I am working to reduce my home electrical consumption

My process is :-

1) Evaluate the energy consumption of each circuit.
2) Evaluate the items on the high power circuits.
3) Attack the high usage items first.

So here is the issue..

My house consumes a staggering 112kWh a day ( according to my meter )

My hot water system uses 31kWh a day
My Cooling system uses about 30Kwh a day
My well and water processing uses 4kWH a day
Lights use 5kWh a day
Everything else - Fridges (2), Freezer, TVs, Computers and cooking use
about 10kWh
That makes 80kWh a day.

So where is the rest of the power going?

IS it possible that my electricity meter is that far off?

Brian

PS I have a masters in electrical and electronic engineering so I am
fairly sure that I am reading everything correctly.


Posted by dogbreath on October 1, 2007, 4:25 pm
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 On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:59:31 -0700, bscallywag wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I am working to reduce my home electrical consumption
>
> My process is :-
>
> 1) Evaluate the energy consumption of each circuit.
> 2) Evaluate the items on the high power circuits.
> 3) Attack the high usage items first.
>
> So here is the issue..
>
> My house consumes a staggering 112kWh a day ( according to my meter )
>
> My hot water system uses 31kWh a day
> My Cooling system uses about 30Kwh a day
> My well and water processing uses 4kWH a day
> Lights use 5kWh a day
> Everything else - Fridges (2), Freezer, TVs, Computers and cooking use
> about 10kWh
> That makes 80kWh a day.
>
> So where is the rest of the power going?
>
> IS it possible that my electricity meter is that far off?
>
> Brian
>
> PS I have a masters in electrical and electronic engineering so I am
> fairly sure that I am reading everything correctly.
There's no way your meter is that far off unlees it's damaged in some way.
Those things are supposed to be calibrated to +0%, -1% so they err in
favor of the customer.

How big is this house? 30KWh per day for cooling seems mighty high, as
does 31KWh for water heating. My house is 1800+ sq ft and our average
daily use is approx 26KWh.
Jeffrey

Posted by BobG on October 1, 2007, 5:08 pm
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Avg US use is 1000 KW-hrs a month, about 30 something a day. Of
course, if your house is 3x bigger, your bill will be also, but I'd
say you were reading the meter wrong. There is some multiplier fudge
factor you are supposed to use in there somewhere I think.


Posted by bscallywag on October 1, 2007, 5:22 pm
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> Avg US use is 1000 KW-hrs a month, about 30 something a day. Of
> course, if your house is 3x bigger, your bill will be also, but I'd
> say you were reading the meter wrong. There is some multiplier fudge
> factor you are supposed to use in there somewhere I think.


So the house is 6000 sq ft rancher located to the north west of
Indianapolis Indiana ( USA ). About normal for the locality.

The water system is direct heat electric with a continual loop
system. ( This wasn't even insulated when I purchased the house ).
Not being a native I am not totally familiar with 'normal' - but
450kWh per 1000sq ft per month seems to be a reasonable rule of thumb.

The meter reads directly in kWh, and the bill comes in kWh, so unless
these are different kWh than I calculate from RMS A x RMS V and my
Fluke power meter reads then I think I am doing it correctly.

However there are only 4 of us in resident - none of us take baths
regularly ( but we do shower with low flow shower heads )
The house is new (2001), and tightly constructed and well insulated
( 6 inch walls, foam and glass - tyvek, brick) 24" blown insulation in
the attic. all internal walls insulated
So me feeling is that I should be able to reduce the energy
consumption from 560kWh/1000sq ft to something more sensible.

The meter has always read at the same sort of levels ( we have been in
the house for almost 2 years ). I have just finally got settled
enough and p1$$ed off enough to do something.

Heating ( and cooling ) is not on in unused rooms.

Oh the other thing that may be a factor is that the electricity lines
outside the house were struck by lightning 3 months before
purchasing. This caused enough of a surge to take out the heat pump
compressor.


Posted by z on October 1, 2007, 5:38 pm
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@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:


>
> Oh the other thing that may be a factor is that the electricity lines
> outside the house were struck by lightning 3 months before
> purchasing. This caused enough of a surge to take out the heat pump
> compressor.

You talk to your power company? They may have a free 'energy audit'
service or somesuch.

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