Keep the Utility Bills Coming!

I’m sure most people can’t relate to this, but I actually look forward to getting our utility bills.  We’ve made a number of investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, along with some behavioral changes to be more conservative in our energy use.

We got our electric bill today for the period 7/30-8/28.  During this time:

  • We only pulled 500 kWh of electricity off the grid.
  • Our solar PV system produced a total of 500 kWh.
  • We exported 287 kWh of excess energy to the grid from our solar PV system.
  • Our net consumption from the grid was only 213 kWh for the month.
  • At $0.1059/kWh, that cost $22.56 + the $8 monthly service charge and taxes for a total of $32.97 for the month.
  • Our total consumption, including solar and grid power, was 713 kWh.  This compares to 1,110 kWh for the same period last year.  So the efficiency & conservation measures are significant.

Our gas bills are equally impressive.  Since we installed the new 90% efficient combination boiler and tankless water heater, our gas bills have been half of what they were in the same period a year ago.  I don’t yet have a year’s worth of data, but here’s our usage in therms:

2012-11 2011-10

Jul

10.2

20.3

Jun

11.2

23.4

May

13.2

22.3

Apr

9.2

22.4

Mar

10.2

63.4

Feb

47.2

117.6

Jan

117.8

174.8

Dec 119.8

218.9

Nov

90.0

173.9

Oct 14.3

59.0

Now I need to point out a couple things.  First of all, the new 16 SEER air conditioner that we installed has a heat pump, so we now use that in the marginal heating months (Oct/Nov and Mar/Apr).   But you can see that the gas we use for cooking and heating water is half of what it was with the traditional 40 gallon hot water tank.

We’re looking forward to seeing our total energy bills continue to drop.  I look forward to having more good news to share as the utility bills come in!

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