As part of our eco-renovation project, the coop decided that it would be good to have an energy rep in each house, who would read the meter every month and bring the reading to the office. This hasn’t happened yet, although I’ve been reading the meters every month since November. I’ve also done a bit of analysis of historical energy use in the coop. Here are some graphs for the last 4 years, with 09-10 estimate on the left, and 06-07 readings on the right. There are both total house usages, and per person energy usages. Of course there are all kinds of reasons for differences – some people are hardly ever at home, some like colder temperatures than others, some need to use much more electrical equipment than others… and apparently some houses use their electric immersion heaters for hot water rather than gas. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting – let me know if you come up with any clever explanation of the differences!
There are a couple of websites available if you want to start measuring your energy use and carbon emissions, and comparing with others.
http://www.thecarbonaccount.com/
http://www.imeasure.org.uk/
If you have a look at them, let us know what you think!
Emilia (3 Fletchers)
GAS – you use this for heating, hot water and cooking.
Electricity – you use this for everything else.
There will soon be meters that you can use to find out how much electricity appliances use available in the office.
The graphs are organized in order of house size – flats, house, 4-person houses, then 6-person, then 9/10 person, then flats, then office.