An Update on the (Almost) Year-Long Energy Saving Program
Almost a year ago, I began to notice some weird things with our electric bill. What followed was me getting obsessed with figuring out where the energy was going, even measuring the daily cost of operating my coffee pot. Then, a resolution to take $2.4 million in future wealth from the stockholders of KCP&L. It will take one more statement cycle to get true year-over-year comparisons since the cost savings didn’t start to kick in until October, and only August has now been concluded, but I pulled our kWh figures and temperature data to see how the changes we made are doing. It seems to be paying off nicely.
May of 2014 is a bit of an outlier because we spent half the month in Southern California, which you can tell from the archives. Otherwise, it seems like the biggest dividend paying move was spending quite a bit of money on high quality LED lightbulbs. I got sidetracked so I haven’t crossed off the one thing on my list that could potentially double these savings figures, which would be to replace the water heater. That needs to get bumped back to the top of the agenda.
The numbers are good but I can do better. It’s a bit of a game, sort of like the new one Aaron and I just created with a bank account modeled after Xillia 2, but I’ll write about that sometime later because I’m about to go enjoy lunch and play the post-game super bosses.
Thank you again to those of you who shared your secrets, tips, and suggestions. I still have a lot to learn about energy efficiency but I’ve enjoyed the process, thanks in no small part to all of you.
October 2013 vs. October 2012
November 2013 vs November 2012
December 2013 vs December 2012
January 2014 vs January 2013
February 2014 vs February 2013
March 2014 vs March 2013
April 2014 vs April 2013
May 2014 vs May 2013
June 2014 vs June 2013
July 2014 vs July 2013
August 2014 vs August 2013
The energy savings program started in late September after seeing how high the kWh usage was (you can see it in the chart), going into effect in October of 2013, at which point our electricity usage began to fall considerably. We’re about to approach the 1-year anniversary so I can do a true year-over-year analysis once I get the bill for September sometime in October.
