December 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh boy did we use some natural gas in December! Why? Well first it was cold. On average, 4 degrees colder than last December. And it snowed…it snowed a lot so no hanging the wash outside and very little ‘free’ heat from the sun. And it was windy and raw so the house had a harder time keeping up.  All that said, the usage is still stunningly high. The thermostat was consistently set at 67 deg during the day and 61 deg at night. This month we will try 66 and 61 to see the difference.

Did better on water usage.  We have been very conscious of the length of showers and of only running the washer and dishwasher when jammed full. A 15% decrease in usage year-to-year is great.  It will be a challenge to reduce that further next year.

We continue to reduce electric demand by finding and disconnecting more and more phantom loads.

Solar generation was way down this month because of snow, impending snow and just plain silly overcast skies. Here’s to a sunny 2014.