How much energy does YOUR house use?

A while back, I wrote a piece about the energy ratings on British houses, and I estimated our own house as being at the bottom of Band C, given our double-glazing, low-power lights, and recent condensing boiler.

So, with all that, how much energy do we actually use?

Our electricity usage is fairly constant, but our gas usage shows a seasonal cycle (there is a delay in the usage and the data, as we are billed every three month, so the "Winter Bill" appears in the data just as the weather is warming up.

In order to know whether any energy-saving upgrades are succesful, one has to know what the relative usage over time is.
Of course, as we have "gas" heating, the biggest factor in our usage is the temeratures that a particular winter brings.

That's me.
What about you?
Do you use more or less than us
(we have a "modern", in other words "small", 2-bed semi with a conservatory, and we live in the South of England)

New Wind Turbine On The Edge Of Town

I was cycling out on the edge of town today, and I saw this.

It sure looks like a wind turbine mast.
I was out on the new link road that joins Berryfields to Buckingham Park (Aylesbury), when I saw it.
A quick trawl on the internet suggests that a 2KW wind turbine was approved in March 2012, so I guess that it what is!
The wind turbine is mentioned in a document called Vale Trends, which is full of planning information for our area - but, be honest, how many folks do you think actually read such publications :-)
Iirc, about 50% of all generated electricity in the UK is lost during transport over the nation's power lines, so a modestIy-sized wind turbine close to a housing development should be quite efficient by comparison - the shorter the distance from generation to consumption, the less is lost!
The 2KW turbine is expected to supply the power to 1500 homes, but with about 75,000 folks being recorded as living in the "Aylesbury Urban Area", and I guess somewhere in the region of 30,000 to 40, 000 homes, it's not that many really!

But every bit helps.
1500 homes powered by the turbine is 1500 less from gas/oil/coal/nuclear!

And it has to be better than living next to a "regular" power station!

Saving fuel with careful driving

The car we use for hypermiling - a 1300kg 1600cc turbo-diesel

Apologies for not blogging much on hypermiling for quite some time.
As I mentioned in my last post, I don't drive much, having  moved my workplace during an internal re-organisation in the company I work for.
This has left me with a one mile cycle to work, rather than a twenty-five mile (each way) drive.
Saving fuel with careful driving isn't the entire answer, but it is easy enough to do, and makes a real difference, at least until better transport solutions emerge in the future.

We still use our car for some journeys, particularly the longer ones.
Recently I made three long-ish journeys in our car, and it is these that I will share with you now.

Car (Automobile) Sharing (Pooling) - Half the Work, Half the Congestion!

We have recently started car (automobile) sharing when my daughter goes to her dancing lessons.
There is another family whose daughter also goes, and they live about half a mile from us (about 800 metres/meters).

Fuel consumption and speed - some solid data

It is easy to say that fuel usage increases with speed, and that wind drag is the major increasing factor.
But just how great is the effect?
Is it the same for all vehicles?
Does driving slower always save fuel?

Lets look at some hard data: page 29 in  Chapter 4 of Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 30 - 2011, published by the The Center for Transportation Analysis at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory gives some figures for a variety of vehicles sold in the USA. Most of the vehicles reach their best economy at either 50 or 55 mph, with some of the physically larger cars better at lower speeds than that, and just one (the Toyota Celica - a reasonably aerodynamic sports coupe) being most efficient at 60 mph.

If that link is unavailable, then try here, which is a summary of the various data from the same source.
Just pick out the data list you think is the most relevant for you needs.
They all point to pretty much the same conclusions, whichever you pick.

Some important conclusions can be drawn, whatever type of automobile you drive, and whichever data source you choose: