I am a big believer in the saying "Practice what you preach." So, after I spent the summer analyzing electricity consumption data for work, it is about time I took a look at the hourly electricity consumption data for the house. What an opportunity for the perfect comparison! We were out of town on September 27, 2014 (a Saturday) and in town on September 20 (also a Saturday). The data comparison tells so much about our lives, e.g. we woke up just before 7am, left around 10am for soccer and didn't get back until around 8pm. The data also might (just might) have the power to shame me into watching less TV, if that is what is responsible for that "Holy Toledo!" sized spike at 10pm. For now, I'll just pretend we plugged in the car.
The data also point out another story. California is on its way to a policy of requiring zero net energy (loosely a make what you use philosophy) for all new residential construction by 2020. This deadline is right around corner, just over 5 years from now. Are we an early adopter case study for zero net energy? Let's see.
When our house is unoccupied (Sept 27 - the green), we generate about 3 kWh so we are net positive. Good! But when we are here and it is a weekend, we are about 8 kWh in the hole (Sept 20 - the blue). Well, that isn't much of a surprise to me since I didn't size the solar system for all of our loads. So, it's a win win. Our house could be zero net energy, if we are out of town. And, maybe even if we don't plug in the car. That is another experiment for a different Saturday.
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