During my checking up on insulation progress, I came across an excellent tool to help judge where our electricity is going. Progress Energy has a wonderful tool to show how you spend your electrons. Create an account, log in, and you’re presented with the last 12 months of bills, including kilowatt usage, monthly average usage, and the high and low temperatures for the day.
I once worked for a local commercial weather forecasting company that among other things sells temperature forecasts to power companies. The power companies use those forecasts to know how much electricity demand to expect, which determines if they have surplus to sell or if they have a need to buy. Even so, I never really appreciated how closely temperatures are tied to electric usage until I saw my own electricity use mapped to temperature on Progress’s website. It shows that my recognizing the need for a better air conditoner is right on target. When you’re looking at your own power bill there’s little doubt about where your electrons are being spent: air conditioning. It’s mind boggling to think how much power could be saved if air conditioners didn’t need compressors.
If you haven’t created an account on the Progress Energy site yet, you can find the log-in details on your latest power bill. Check it out!
If you want to check the electricity usage of individual appliances in your house, buy a Kill A Watt ( http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html ):
I got one last month, and it’s pretty slick. It was an eye-opener to see just how much power stuff was using when it was “turned off”. I also used my Kill A Watt to troubleshoot a low-voltage problem caused by lightning zapping the transformer that feeds my house. It was well worth the 27 bucks that I spent via eBay.
Yeah, I need to get me one of those things. I’ll keep an eye on eBay.